Mojave United
by Test Subject Delta
Summary: War is breaking out in the Mojave. The Legion is growing strong and the Ncr is stretched thin. Factions are pitting against each other and towns are being torn apart. Divided as it is, the Mojave could not possibly notice the greater threat.
1. The Beginning

I leaned against the rock and fidgeted absent-mindedly with the metal dog tag around my neck. Hours had passed so far, but nothing had happened. I yawned loudly and stretched the stiff muscles in my legs as far as they could go. I peeked my head above my hiding place and towards the run down two-story house I was staking out

There was nothing special about it. It was the only remaining structure in an entire town of ruins, but other than that it was just a piece of junk. The way the moonlight hit it made it look completely desolate, but I knew a small group of raiders were holed up inside.

I yawned again and tucked the dog tag back underneath my shirt.

I abandoned watching the house, and instead stared at a muddy puddle at my feet, marveling at the way the stars and moon were reflected. It would have been a perfect picture if not for the impish face staring back at me. The reflection stuck its tongue out at me, and, in retaliation, I made it pull at its matted blonde hair. We waged war for some time until I heard the loud slam that I had been waiting for.

I pulled binoculars out of one of my many jacket pockets and peeked over the rock again, training them towards to old house.

I watched carefully through the cracked binoculars at the small group exiting the house. Three people, all talking and laughing loudly, smacking each other on the back and having a good time. The group walked away from the house and started off to one of the nearby ruins.

"Idiots" I mumbled as one of them stumbled into the other two, knocking the entire party down. I could hear the roars of laughter even from where I was hiding as they all tried to shakily get back to their feet.

I waited, barely breathing, as they stumbled into the nearby ruins of a small house, still laughing. They disappeared from sight and I stowed my binoculars in my duffel bag and crept from the rock I was hiding behind. I gave one last glance around and sprinted for the run-down two-story house they had just exited, running as fast as I possibly could. Obviously, I tripped.

I landed heavily on my stomach and groaned. I was going to get back up until I glanced over and saw one of the raiders in the far ruins with their back towards me. I hugged the ground as close as possible, hoping that somehow the brown of my jacket camouflaged me. They turned around and quickly scanned the area before returning to the ruins. Before long, an orange glow appeared from the area and a thin trail of smoke began snaking through the air.

I scrambled back to my feet and closed the remaining distance between me and the door. I pumped my fist in the air in silent triumph. It was unlocked. I creaked it open and slid in.

The studio room I was in appeared to be the entire first floor. It was mostly empty, with a few exercise mats scattered around on the floor and a small kitchen area in the corner farthest from me. There was a staircase going up off to my left.

I walked slowly over to the kitchen area, being careful of my noise, and started searching the cupboards. Mostly empty or filled with trash, but one held a few cans of Pork N' Beans. My stomach growled in hunger. I nearly took some when a greater hunger tore at me and reminded me why I was here.

I couldn't find anything in the cupboards, and after checking as many nooks and crannies as I could find, I made my way up the stairs.

I got to the top and was greeted with a hallway, wide enough that two people could walk side-by-side and not touch the walls. There were two doors on both sides with another door at the end of it.

I cautiously pushed against the door to my immediate left, directly at the top of the stairs, but it was so full of rubble I could barely open it a few inches. I checked the one to the immediate right of the stairs and it was in the same situation.

I approached the left door at the end of the hall and opened it as slow as possible. The door swung open, revealing a cluttered room with trash and rubble scattered across the floor, with bunks built into the wall.

There were a few suitcases that I quickly searched, but quickly found out that they were filled only with raider armor, so badly beat up they weren't worth anything. I did find a small leather bag, tied with a drawstring that held a couple dozen caps. I pocketed that quickly.

I left and went to check out the next room. I opened the door and looked around. Blank walls and a spotless floor. Nothing was in here, not a sign of trash or rubble anywhere.

I shrugged and was about to turn and leave when a shape on the ceiling caught my eye. I looked up at it, but it was too dark to see anything. I reached into my duffel bag and ratcheted around my few supplies until I was rewarded with a flashlight. I flicked it on and pointed it at the ceiling.

A gory face came into full focus, its dead eyes staring at me.

I yelped and dropped my flashlight. It hit the ground with a loud thud, its light flickering off.

My heart leapt to my throat and I froze.

I stood there for several minutes, scared to breathe. The silence was complete and undisturbed. I slowly reached down and picked my flashlight back up. I shook it a few times until it turned on and slowly pointing it back towards the body.

A man had been strung across the ceiling. A network of chains, hooks, and ropes dug into his arms and legs and stretched over to the walls. His clothes had been taken and his chest had been mutilated, cuts and gorges dancing across it like the art project of a psychopath. His head had an enormous crater in the side of it, and his mouth had been pinned up in an unsettling smiley face. I turned off the flashlight and tried not to run as I left the room

By the time I got out of the room I was shaking so bad I could barely move. I leaned up against the hallway wall and slid down, shuddering on the floor. The image of the man burned behind my eyes and I couldn't get rid of him.

I had to leave. That body is going to be me if I stay, I never should have come here, I forgot the kind of things these people do.

No. I had gotten this far, I HAD to keep going.

I shakily stood up and took a deep breath. I could do this

I went to the last door at the end of the hall and opened it, peering inside.

Trash lined the perimeter of the room, but the main floor was nearly empty. A couch sat in the middle of the room, facing a wall to my right with a fireplace, its ash overflowing. To my left was a small door, directly behind the couch.

I walked in and clicked my flashlight back on. The beam swept across the room, searching for what I knew had to be here.

There! A glint in the far corner.

I walked slowly over to the safe. It was smallish, definitely no more than two feet cubed, with a large dial squatting in the middle of the door.

I knelt down, aiming my flashlight at the dial.

I realized I didn't actually know what to do now that I had made it this far

I tugged on it desperately, but it wouldn't work. I tried prying it open with a screwdriver from my pocket, but all I was left with was a 90° screwdriver. I even tried pressing my ear against it and breaking in like in the vids, but, alas, it didn't work.

Frustrated, I slammed the butt of my flashlight against it and the beam flicked out. Swearing, I shook it a few times and tried to get it to turn back on, but whatever I had done, it would not be so easily fixed.

I cursed myself and took it apart, trying to find out what went wrong. I had gotten it all in pieces when I heard a door slam below me and loud voices.

I froze. Stopped breathing. Sat as still as possible. Yelling and laughing floated through the cracks of the floorboard. I sat in the dim light and tried to be the absolute paragon of silence.

I slowly rose to my feet, as silent as possible. The floor creaked and groaned as I rose, each small noise making my chest clench and heart stop. I managed to get to a standing position and began slowly making my way to the exit door.

My foot got caught on a nail and I tripped.

I pin wheeled my arms desperately to get balanced, but it didn't work.

I tipped forward and hit the floor with a heavy thud.

A heavy silence settled over the entire house and the only thing I could hear was my pulse pounding in my ears. Fear washed through my body, leaving me cold, and the only thing I could see was my body strung across a ceiling like a sick trophy.

Footsteps erupted below me and began stampeding up the stairs. I nearly threw up. I had to leave. I had to get out.

There was a loud bang and my murderous guests entered the room.

When they kicked the door open and I got a good look at them. Three of them, two females and a male. The larger female was dark, tall and muscular, and was a terrifying sight to see. Miss Scary had a caravan shotgun leaned on her shoulder and walked in calmly. The other two were wearing more tradition spiked raider armor, and were far from calm. They were they were both the same height, which is to say, short, light on their feet, and very twitchy, constantly gripping and regripping the combat knives in their hands. The two looked so similar they could be brother and sister, while all three of them appeared to be Polynesian.

"Check the safe" ordered Miss Scary, gesturing at it with her shotgun

The small man instantly obliged, nearly sprinting towards the little box in the corner. He dropped to his knees and quickly twisted the dial until he was rewarded with a soft click. He swung the door open and quickly checked the contents, visibly relaxing.

"It's all there." He reported to Miss Scary.

Miss Scary nodded slightly, but otherwise showed no emotion about the news. The smaller woman, however, breathed a sigh of relief. She piped up "Well, then what was the noise we heard if not someone coming to steal from us?"

A silence fell over them as the thin man picked up the pieces of flashlight I had dropped around "I don't know exactly," he said "But whoever it was can't be far gone."

The taller women stood up straight "secure the house and then begin sweeping all nearby ruins. Don't let anybody get past you or I'll make you regret it."

Both of the others nodded and ran out of the room.

The taller woman walked slowly to the safe in the far corner of the room. She crouched down and picked up a piece of my flashlight. "Where are you…?" She murmured to herself, before standing back up and walking out.

I drew back from the crack in the door and leaned back against the wall. I felt cold and hollow. I closed my eyes and desperately tried to control my breathing. The space was so small I couldn't stretch my hands out to either side, and I could already feel the walls closing in around me. I had to get out.

I saw down and focused on my breathing for a few minutes until I was calm enough to function. I began searching, not that there was much space to search, for a rope to scale the building or some sort of weapon. Bits of trash were scattered about, a few leather scraps, a broken metal helmet, and what used to be a rifle stock that was bent beyond use. No rope and no weapon.

I reached for my holster even though I knew exactly what I would find. I pulled out a 9mm handgun with a nearly fully magazine. Fired once, completely black, it perfect condition besides a scratch along its slide. I knew I wouldn't use it, so I slid it back into its holster and tried to come up with an escape plan.

I couldn't stay, I would surely be found and I would have nowhere to go. I could try to sneak out, but the chances of me getting caught were too high. The only way I was getting out was with every single raider being unconscious or dead. I definitely couldn't do that alone. If my 90-pound thin frame went up against even one of those raiders the result would be me getting un-alived. There had to be another way.

I was running out of time and had to do something. I picked up the broken metal helmet and examined it. It had a large gouge running down the side as if it had made a not-so-friendly acquaintance with an axe, and the hole was large enough to fit my hand through, with metal curling off on the inside acting as an adequate handhold. I reached my hand in and grabbed the handle hold, the metal digging into my fingers.

I readjusted my grip on the helmet and creaked the door open, moving as slow as possible as I crept back into the room.

It was empty, but I knew that could change at any second. I got on my knees and crawled to the safe, making as little noise as possible. The door to the safe was still open from the raiders searching.

As I got closer to the safe my breathing got faster and faster and by the time I got a hold on its door I was practically panting in anticipation. I tugged it open and nearly cried out in relief when I saw what lay inside. I set down my helmet, pulled off my bag, and quickly began shoveling everything in, trying to keep as quiet as possible.

I got it all out and zipped up my bag, slinging it over my shoulders. The weight of it tugged me down, a pleasant reminder that I had got what I had come for. A few bottle caps and other miscellaneous items were still scattered about the bottom of the safe, but I didn't care about them. I stood back up and swung the door shut.

It closed with a bang.

My hand flew up and smacked myself in the face for being so impossibly stupid.

I couldn't hear any footsteps, but I knew it would be impossible that someone hadn't noticed the noise. The two raiders that had been sent outside to search for me may not have been warned, but Miss Scary no doubt heard it, and she was one person I would not be evading a second time. I had to get out now.

I grabbed my helmet and walked carefully over to the door. I opened it a crack and peered through the opening into the hallway. As far as I could tell, it was completely empty, nothing and no one was out there.

I opened the door a little more and squeezed out to the hall. The rest of the doors were still ajar from the search, but I couldn't tell if anyone was in them.

I tiptoed down the hall, every creak of the floorboards sending shivers down my spine. Somebody had to have heard something, why had nobody come by now? The absence of resistance was far more terrifying than the prospect of being caught

I got to the pair of doors right in front of the stairs before I heard any noise. It was a soft creak, like someone shifting their weight, coming from my right. I turned too late to do anything and was tackled to the ground, hitting the floor face-first.

My assaulter quickly got on top of me, pinned my arms behind my back, and held my face to the ground

"Hey!" I protested weakly "What are you doing?"

The assailant ignored me and began searching through my jacket pockets, systematically removing everything that could be of value or used as a weapon, namely a few spare bottle caps, a mini screwdriver, and half a piece of gum. Then they unstrapped my gun, pulled out its magazine, and tossed both in opposite directions, the magazine skidded towards the stairs and the gun towards the safe room.

"Hey!" I yelled "Be careful with that!" which received me a knock to the side of the head and my arms being pinned tighter.

They ripped my duffle bag off my shoulder and quickly unzipped it. What followed was several moments of tense silence as they took in the contents of the bag.

"You think you can come in here and steal from me?" The voice, Miss Scary's, was quiet enough it could have been a whisper "You just signed your death sentence, kid"

I swallowed hard "Hey, come on, that won't be necessary, will it?" I said as nonchalant as possible, but a quiver crept in "I'm sure we can work something out, no need for vio-"

She grabbed my hair and yanked my head up, bringing my face close to hers. "The only thing we will be 'working out' is you giving me back what is mine, and then me putting a knife in your back." She snarled ferociously, bits of spittle hitting me in the face

I gulped and said weakly "Don't you want to, uh, wait for everyone else? Make it a family event?"

She grinned, showing off stained and broken teeth "Nobody else will know you were found. You're going to disappear, somehow making off with all of our goods" She let go of my hair unexpectedly, causing my head to smack into the ground once again. "I'll have access to all the stash without having to worry about petty shares, and nobody will know."

I felt her weight disappear from my back and I rolled over and saw why. She was standing over me, duffle bag swung over her shoulder, with her shotgun pointed directly at my face. She looked down her sights and got ready to fire.

I threw my hands up "Wait!" I yelled "Wait, wait, just wait a second, wait. If you kill me in here, you'll, uh, leave evidence of a fight! The others will know that you found and killed me, and they'll get suspicious if you hadn't found the stash!"

She hesitated, lowering the shotgun slightly.

"But," I continued "If you kill me outside then no one will know because you can just cover up any evidence with dirt. You'll keep all the valuables and your group won't get suspicious"

I could see her mulling the options around in her mind, trying to decide if this was a trick or whether it would actually be worth risking my escape to move me outside for my execution. I could see her decide that I, with muscles so large I could barely open a pickle jar, wasn't much of a risk to escape as she lowered her gun and gestured for me to get up.

"If you try to run." She warned as I scrambled to my feet. "I will not hesitate to fill your pathetic head with buckshot."

She re-trained her gun at me and I raised my hands in surrender "No worries, I'm not going anywhere." I gestured over to my discarded handgun and broken helmet "You might want to pick those up and keep track of them, you don't want your prisoner having any weapons, do you?"

She squinted her eyes at me, trying to figure out my angle. Finally, keeping the shotgun pointed at me the whole time, she bent over and picked up the two items, stashing the gun in a pocket and the helmet under her arm. "Why are you so helpful all the sudden?" She demanded, poking her gun at me as if to make some point.

I narrowed my eyes at the barrel a few inches from my face. "I would prefer not to get shot until absolutely necessary" I said slowly "And the best way to do that is with cooperation."

She led me to the stairs and I tripped over a loose floorboard and my hands shot out in front of me to stop my fall, but I still landed heavily on my stomach, directly in front of the stairs. I groaned and wrapped my hands around my stomach, grabbing the magazine I was lying on, stowing it inside my jacket.

"Get up!" She barked, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me onto my feet. I desperately got my footing and balanced myself before she hit me in the back of the head with the butt of her gun. Pain shot through my skull and I nearly gasped

"I suggest you keep your balance next time, because that's more where that came from" She spat and prodded me her gun again "Now get moving"

My head throbbing, I carefully made my way down the stairs and started towards the door, Miss Scary right behind me. This was my last chance.

I stopped and she nearly ran into me.

"Why aren't you moving?" She demanded "What do you think you're doing"

I turned and gave her a smile that didn't quite reach the eyes "Ah, you see, the thing is, we're not going outside."

She glared at me "And why would that be?"

I casually stepped backwards, away from her, and said "Because, uh, well… OK there is no real reason, I just don't want to die."

She leveled the shotgun at me "Don't think I won't kill you" She warned "It would be the simplest thing to convince the others that you were a second robber and the first got away with the loot."

Time, I needed time to think. "But, but, It would be highly unlikely that you were able to catch me and not so much as catch sight of the other robber."

Miss Scary apparently had enough of my talking because she stormed over and hit me across the cheek with her shotgun butt. "Get outside or I'm going to drag you out!" She yelled, grabbing my shirt and holding me up.

My hands were free, her shotgun was lowered.

I spat in her eye and she dropped me, stumbling back in surprise and swearing. At the same time I made a grab for the helmet still tucked under her arm and managed to take it. She was too preoccupied to even notice that it was gone. She finished wiping furiously at her eye and turned towards where she dropped me, aiming her gun. But I wasn't there anymore

I lifted the helmet up with both hands and smashed it down on the back of her head as hard as I could. She stumbled forwards and I hit her again, putting as much force as I could possibly muster behind the blow.

I went to hit her again, determined to knock her out, when she spun around, knocking the helmet out of my hand with her gun, and fired.

The gunshot was loud and I flinched hard, closing my eyes and bringing my hands up to my ears. This is it, I thought. This is where I die

It took me several seconds of my ears ringing to realize I wasn't dead, that I hadn't even been shot. I opened my eyes a crack and saw that Miss Scary was bent over, panting, as she loaded another shell into her shotgun to replace the one she used. I glanced back and saw that she had missed her shot, shooting off to my right. I looked back over to her and she straightened up and controlled her breathing

She looked up at me with murder in her eyes and growled. "You. Little. Piece. Of. Sh-" Before another bang interrupted her.

I thought for a second she had fired again, and I flinched again and put up my arms to defend myself, but when I opened my eyes she looked as surprised as I was. She was looking behind me and I turned around to see what was so great.

Two silhouetted raiders were standing in an open doorway, with fresh sunlight pouring in from behind them. I had been in the building so long the sun had risen

The two walked in and I realized it was the other, small raiders from before. The ones that had been sent to search for me. They both looked confused about the situation. After a tense silence the girl spoke.

"Alani" She said, slowly "What is going on? We came when we heard gunfire."

Miss Scary, Alani, grabbed me from behind in a chokehold "Quick, Kahula, you and your twin come help me take care of this thief!"

Twins. That explained why they looked so similar. And it looked like I was right about their ancestry, those were Polynesian names.

The small women, Kahula, moved forward, pulling out her knife

"Wait, wait wait!" I yelled "She was going to betray you!"

She hesitated, looking at Alani.

"Shut it." Alani growled in my ear, and then yelled to the twins "He's lying, what you are waiting for? Kill him!"

"It's true!" I said "She was going to kill me and take all of the- Agh!"

She tightened her hold, cutting off all airflow. I hit weakly against her arm, but her grip was iron. I slipped my other hand into one of her pockets and pulled out my handgun, discretely sliding it into my jacket pocket that held the magazine.

The man at the door stepped forward, stopping by his sister "Let him go. I want to hear what he has to say. After that, we can kill him."

Alani had been backed into a corner. If she killed me, it would prove to the other two that she didn't want me to speak because my words were true. If she let me go, I would tell them about her plan to betray them anyway.

She hesitated, unsure of what to do, and unconsciously relaxed her grip. I immediately twisted out of her grip, quickly stepping out of her range. The other two raiders instantly tensed up, grabbing their knives.

"Whoa, whoa!" I threw my hands up in a _Calm down _gesture. "She," I pointed at Alani "was going to take the entire stash from me, kill me, and claim I had gotten away, keeping everything for herself."

Kahula stared at me "The stash you stole."

I winced "Well… yes, but! But, if I hadn't distracted her until you got her, then she would have stolen it all. So, in a way, I saved all of your stuff from this _thief!_" Pointing dramatically at Alani, who was glaring at me? "I have revealed the traitor in your midst!"

The twins, Kahula and Kahole, had looked skeptical at first, but were now glancing suspiciously at Alani. Kahole slowly reached for his knife.

"And why would we trust you?" Kahula said pointedly.

"Because I have proof!" I claimed "The bag! She's holding it! If she had had the chance to take my bag, she would have had the chance to kill me as well! The only reason she wouldn't have killed me immediately would be because she needed to kill me where she could hide the evidence and make off with the stash.

It worked. I could see it in the twin's faces. They believed every word.

"Do you really believe this?" Alani protested weakly, lowering her weapon and stretching out a hand as a gesture of peace "This thief is trying to get us to fight each other so that he can escape!" It was no use. The twins had already been convinced.

"You've always been trying to cheat us Alani." Kahula said. "This is the end of it." Kahole finished. They both made a move towards Alani.

But they didn't get far. Alani raised her shotgun and fired once, taking down the girl, Kahula. She turned and fired again at Kahole, who had been running at her, and he fell at her feet.

I stared in shock at the two bodies gasping on the floor while Alani calmly lowered her shotgun and crouched down beside Kahole, dropping her empty shotgun and picking up his knife.

I couldn't look away from Kahula. The rectangle of light falling in from the open door landed on Kahula's head, so I could clearly see her pleading eyes. She stared at me and raised her hand. For help. A rescue. All I could do was stand there.

Alani strode forward and blocked my line of site with the body .I snapped out of my trance, but the images of her lying there, bleeding out and begging for help, was seared into my mind.

Alani stepped directly in front of me, so close that we were toe-to-toe. I could see a cold, calm, fury burning in her eyes and knew that I couldn't talk my way out of this. She lifted the knife and slowly brushed it along my cheek. I shuddered at the touch of the cold metal.

"You've caused me a lot of trouble." She whispered, sliding the knife lower, off my face and across my throat. "You've killed my two work-monkeys, now what'd you go do that for?"

The knife went lower, passing my chest and stopping at my stomach.

"I guess the only thing left now," The tip of the knife pressed, hard, against my stomach. She locked eyes with me, her stare hard and cold. "Is to kill you."

A pain flared up from my stomach, but was almost instantly replaced by a cold, empty feeling, spreading quickly. I stumbled away from her and fell on the ground, my head spinning. I could see her standing above me, but she was deformed. A giant, larger than life, towering over me menacingly. My vision was blacking out, but I saw her grip the knife, coated with blood, with both hands and lift it up, preparing to bring it crashing down to end my life. But something happened. She stopped, teetering momentarily, before crumpling to the ground beside me. Her head lolled to the side and stared at me. The fire in her eyes died down to a soft flame, and then went out altogether, being replaced instead by a vacant, glassy stare.

Everything blurred together. Black-and-white shapes danced at the corners of my vision, spinning around and around me. Watching them made me feel dizzy. My blood pounded at my ears, desperate to get out. Voices tugged indistinctly at my ears, but I couldn't make sense of them. Everything was slipping away, falling past me into the dark.

Finally, I fell with them.

I saw him again. We were both outside, under a dark stormy sky, with nothing but sand and rocks for miles around us. The wind was blowing hard as the storm raged. He was facing away from me, his head bent downwards as if in prayer. I shouted for him, but my voice refused to work. I began running, but the ground slid out from under me, pulling me away from him. The faster I ran the more the ground slid underneath me, pulling me back. The wind pushed and pushed as the ground pulled me back farther and farther until I couldn't see him anymore and I could only see black desolate wasteland all around me, interrupted by the occasional strike of lightning.

The wind picked up as voices, all the same, floated at me from all directions.

"Here…. This one… take him…."

"Fast…. fading…."

"Run… Run…."

"Here…. come on."

The voices began to get more frantic and the wind matched the tempo

"No…. falling…."

"Have to…. last chance… no choice"

"Hold on... get ready…."

The wind halted and the voices stopped.

For several seconds nothing happened. And then….

"I'm… sorry…"

The storm screeched and the wind instantly burst out into a tornado, pulling me in all directions. An enormous strike of lighting split apart the sky and my entire body exploded in pain. I tried to scream as fire coursed through my veins and my head slowly split apart.

Finally, mercifully, the pain stopped as everything went black


	2. Waking Up

I woke, chest was heaving, gulping for air like a fish out of water. Sweat poured down my face and soaked my t-shirt, which clung to me like a second skin. When I tried to move a wave of nausea flooded over me and I vomited pathetically off to my side.

The heaving continued long after my stomach was empty, and I laid there convulsing and shivering for hours until I fell back asleep

I could hear voices. They were faint, coming from all directions. I recognized one from my dream, but there was another now; not quite as deep, but many times more cold.

I tried to open my eyes to see who was talking, but light flooded in, hard and fast. It hit me like a truck and I gasped in pain and physically recoiled. The movement sent a wave of dizziness that shoved me back into unconsciousness and the voices faded away.

I woke up, struggling to breathe and shivering violently. Coldness had taken its place in my chest, freezing me to the bone. I felt weak and light, disconnected from my body. I tried to push myself off the ground, but once I did fire shot through my arms and chest. I fought against the pain, thrashing my arms out, breathing hard, and clawing the ground. I fought for what seemed like an eternity until a pleasantly relaxing feeling washed in through my arm, loosening muscles as it passed, and chased away the pain. It filled every crevice of my body and in only a few moments engulfed me completely.

When I came to again, the pain had returned as a dull throb. I felt light and weak as balloon that had lost its tether. I wasn't grounded anymore.

I opened my eyes and was greeted by an endless expanse of blue stretching above me. I turned my head and saw mountains, hills, sand, all beautifully cast in the evening light, but my eyes kept returning to the sky.

I would have stayed like that forever, staring at the sky, but a voice broke through my trance.

"Finally up now, are ya?" A voice, the one from my dream, coming from my right.

I jumped in surprise, as far as you can jump while lying on the ground. Just basically lifting up and then crashing back down.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you" The voice chuckled.

I struggled to get on my right side, and once I did, I was met with an honest-to-god cowboy. He was sitting casually on a rock, twisting a knife in his hands. From his vest to his boots, he was the poster boy of every stereotypical Vid cowboy. He even had the beard and accent. His skin was a deep brown from time spent in the sun, and his brown eyes matched the tone exactly. There was a herd of Brahmin some 30 feet behind him, walking aimlessly in circles, head butting each other

"Is your name Alex?" He asked, sliding his knife into a small sheath.

"How did you-" I tried to ask, but my voice cracked and I fell into a coughing fit.

He rose from the rock and kneeled by me in one smooth move. He pressed a canteen against my lips and trickled some precious water down my throat. He kept pouring water through my cracked lips until finally I could talk again.

"We found your duffle bag. It has your name stitched under the STE logo." He explained.

"I heard your voice in my dream" I whispered, unable to get louder than that

"Yeah, I helped you get back to good health. Only took a couple of days."

"WHAT?" My voice cracked again. He handed me the canteen and I drank thirstily.

"Calm down, it was a serious wound. It took some recovery time."

"Okay, Okay." I whispered, unable to get anything else from my pathetic throat. "Where am I? Who are you?"

He sat down next to me "Well, my name is Jacob. As for where you are, we're about 20 miles out from New Cedar. We were on the road when we heard sounds of gunfire, and once we tracked it down to the source we saw you get stabbed. I shot the girl assaulting you and we dragged you out of there, grabbing as many things as could guess were yours."

I looked away from Jacob and back to the sky as my hand reached down and traced the place where I had been stabbed. I could feel a scar outlining the wound. "Who's 'we'?" I asked, still confined to a whisper

"Me and my bodyguard, he's out scouting right now. We've been on the road for over half a year now, trying to get to New Vegas before too much goes on without us."

"What's going on in Vegas?" I hadn't heard of anything going on since the Ncr held the dam from Caesar.

"Tensions are high between the Legion and the Ncr right now. I'm bringing supplies," He gestured behind him, towards the herd "to see what kind of good the Ncr can do with them."

A fight was new to me. I guess there WERE disadvantages to living under a rock. Go figure. I remained silent for a few minutes, and then asked "So how did you save me? You a doctor?"

I heard him clear his throat "Well, erm, no."

"Your bodyguard?"

"Nope, neither of us are doctors."

"How'd you do it then?"

"Well, he held you down while I, carefully, administered a, um, Stimpak. Carefully.

The color drained from my face. "WHAT?" I whispered as violently as I could.

"You were bleeding out when we found you! We cleaned your wound and got you back to camp, but you needed professional help and we were nowhere near some. We did what we had to do.

I fell silent. "No wonder I was out for so long." I murmured. That explained why it hurt so much before I passed out at the raiders base. It must have been the Stimpak kicking in.

"So I'm not recovering from a stab wound, I'm recovering from Stimpak Sickness."

He sighed "Basically. You'll be walking within a day, you're going to be sore for a week or so. You'll constantly be tired, much of your body's energy was taken from storage by the chemicals. We didn't give you a full syringe, you didn't need it, and so you probably won't have to need any physical therapy."

"Probably?"

"You never know."

I sighed. It was the best I'd get. I pinched my t-shirt. "Where'd my clothing go? Where's my Jacket?"

"We put them in your duffel bag. The Leather Armor you had on has some bloodstains, your jacket doesn't though. Anything in the pockets of either should still be there."

I felt a tug of fear in the pit of my stomach "Did you look inside the duffel bag at all?"

"No, we just shoved your stuff in. Why," He asked, suspicious "Is there something I shouldn't be seeing?"

I tried to wave my hand nonchalantly, but it came out as more of a spasm "Nah, just didn't want you to have to sort through all of my dirty underwear."

He remained silent for a moment, scrutinizing my face and judging my answer. Finally he leaned forward and asked "Now for the thousand cap question. Why were you in a raider's base?"

I stared at the sky and tried to think of a good answer, some excuse. No way could I tell the truth, he'd kick me out now and I'd be helpless.

"I don't remember." I lied

He squinted at me "You don't remember?"

"No, I don't remember." I whispered "I remember entering the base and being stabbed, that's it. I don't remember what I did or why I did it."

He mulled over my words, judging on whether they're truthful or not. Finally, he spoke again "You remember where you come from?"

"I… used to live at Richard."

"Used to?"

"It was destroyed."

His face softened, losing its suspicious edge "I'm sorry."

"Don't be" I said, trying to sit up "Best not to dwell on the past."

"Were you doing anything besides going to the base? Travelling anywhere?"

"Yeah." I said "I was trying to get something to the Ncr. Hand me my duffel and I'll show you."

He reached behind the rock he had been sitting on and pulled out my old nylon bag. Its deep green color was fading, but the STE logo was still easily visible a small globe with two arrows curling around it, pointing upwards.

He handed it to me and I ratcheted around in it until I was rewarded with a black disc vaguely shaped like a UFO. I held it up for him to see and whispered triumphantly

"Tada!"

He stared at it in confusion "What is it?"

My throat somewhat recovered, I began to explain in a normal voice "It's a Holoplayer, a rare piece of tech. My father collaborated as much information from the Old World as he could, books, vids, anything he could get his hands on."

I showed him the underside of it, which held the STE logo "It was released pre-war as a mass storage device, and it was said that a few of these could theoretically hold the entire Library of Congress."

Jacob stared at it "How much data is that?" He asked, his voice tinged with amazement

"Too much to count. There were plans to back up all the worlds data on an enormous collection of these Holoplayer units, but The Great War got in the way. Only a few Holoplayers survived. My dad found one in his childhood, and he obsessed with filling it with all available information. He sent out Holodiscs with traders that came to town, he went on journeys for months on end to find a particularly valuable terminal, and finally reached a point where he was satisfied with it."

"How much did he collect?"

"This unit sustained damage from so many years since it was built, so its file counting feature doesn't work. I know it doesn't hold a library of congress, but it holds enough that my dad thought it was ready to be brought to the Ncr."

I held it out for him, and Jacob tentatively reached forward and grabbed it, holding it gingerly in his hands as if it was made of glass. "What will the Ncr do?"

I stared at the ever-declining sun "Hopefully they'll try to duplicate the information. They'll look through it, find things like textbooks and schoolbooks, and start shipping that information to the rest of the wasteland on Holotapes. This could start the re-education of the wasteland."

He stared at it. "Show me." He said suddenly.

I blinked in surprise "Show you the wasteland?"

"If you want me to believe you, show me something to prove it." His eyes were intense, focused solely on the Holoplayer.

"Oh, of course." I said "Watch and learn."

I grabbed the Player, flicked a switch on the side, and scanned my thumb on the top bump, the glass dome where a pilot would sit if this was a UFO. The dome flickered red, then turned a bright green. A holographic projection shot out of it, showing a three-dimensional version of the STE logo in full color. It revolved for a few moments, continents and oceans covered with thin clouds hanging in thin air, before flashing out and being replaced with a list of categorized files.

"What would you like to start with?" I asked, laughing internally at his awestruck expression.

"That one." He said, pointing towards a file labeled 'Education'

I tapped it in mid-air and it expanded, bringing out a whole new list of files. I maneuvered through a few more files, until I got to a textbook on surgical procedures.

"This one you might find useful," I said, turning the projected image towards him "next time you can stitch me up instead of resorting to chemicals."

He looked at it with the same stupid awed expression, using his finger to scroll through pages of projected illustrations and texts.

"Some of the data from these books had gone corrupted, and were difficult to recover" I explained as he scrolled "But this Holoplayer is very good at recovering the corrupted data. Sadly, it couldn't do it with everything, so you'll probably stumble across missing exerts occasionally."

"I've seen enough" He said, his voice shaking.

I turned the Player off and the image disappeared, but Jacob kept staring at the air where it used to be for several minutes. His mouth hung open slightly.

"So?" I asked, "What do you think?"

He closed his mouth and sat silent for a few more minutes. When he spoke, his voice was just above a whisper "I think… I think you're certainly right about the good you think your player can do. I think that, if you get it to the Ncr, it can do all the good you think it will. But most of all, I think that I have to assist you in getting that Player to where it needs to go."

"Excuse me?" I asked, confused "What do you mean?"

He looked at me, his eyes determined "You say you have the key to the re-education of an entire planet in your hands. I was meant to meet you here and assist you on your journey. I'm going to lead you to McCarran so you're not hurt along the way."

I shook my head "No, I wasn't trying to persuade you to let me join, I was just-"

He interrupted me "This is my last caravan. I ferried supplies all over the eastern seaboard for most of my life. I carried weapons and rations for the Bos in their war against the Enclave, and once they won, I carried their fresh water for them. I helped with that and I loved it, but everyone else was doing it too. There was enough help. I had enough caps I could retire, but I heard about the troubles in Vegas and knew I had to help there, make a difference. So I sank all of my caps into one final trip, picked up a bodyguard who wanted to make the same difference I did, and we've been travelling for 8 months now, and we just so happen to stumble across someone who could make an enormous difference in the wasteland." He paused.

"Where are you getting at with this?" I asked

"Where am I getting at? I'm getting at the only conclusion that is possible. I came out on this journey to make a difference one last time, and I'm given the chance to make one by helping a young man finish his father's work. If it's not obvious to you that I'm supposed to help you out, than you need your head checked." His eyes bore into mine, so intense that I averted my gaze. A few moments passed and his stare softened, waiting for my response.

I shrugged "If you insist, then I must give in and grace you with my presence." I said dramatically, sighing heavily "If it so pleases you."

He laughed his booming cowboy laugh, seriously how could anybody be that big of a cowboy? "No need to be an ass about it" He chuckled.

He stood up and brushed off his jeans. "I've got to get the Brahmin situated together for the night, or we'll have to gather them together in the morning." He reached behind one of the rocks nearby and pulled up a blue roll. "You can use this to camp in, and we'll wake you up in the morning for breakfast. Sleep well and build up your strength, we'll be on the move tomorrow and it'll be hard for you to keep up in your condition." He tossed the roll at me.

Of course, it hit me in the face and landed on my lap. Jacob turned and began to leave.

"Hey, wait!" I called after him.

He turned and looked at me "What is it?"

"Thank you."

"I should be the one thanking you"

"Why?"

"Because now I have hope that the world can finally, truly, recover after 200 years. Because now I have someone to put that hope and trust in, a remarkable individual.

He left me there in the fading light.

When he left, I grabbed for my duffle bag. I held it in my lap, tracing the worn nylon exterior and reached for the zipper.

I wouldn't do it.

My hand shakily unzipped it, and the other began parting the belongings that had been stored inside. It sorted through repair supplies, clothes, tools, until finally it reached the bottom.

I stared down at a dozen small metal cases, gleaming in the days last light. Jacob's words curled around my ears as I reached down with a shaking hand and picked a case up. _Now I have someone to put that hope and trust in._

I opened the case I pulled up and stared at the 5 Med-X's, lined up in a row.

_A remarkable individual._

I shut the case and returned it, closing my duffle bag. I curled into my sleeping roll and tried to ignore the vials that taunted me.

I fell asleep like that, my duffel bag against my back, hearing over and over the lullaby of Jacob's lies.

My duffle bag was off to my right. I grabbed for it, dragging it towards me. My hand traced over the worn nylon exterior and reached for the zipper. I wouldn't open it. I won't do it.

My hand shakily unzipped it, and the other began parting the belongings that had been stuffed inside. A few sets of rolled up clothes, misc. repair supplies, tools, the Holoplayer, until finally I was staring at the exposed stack lying underneath it all.

A dozen small silver syringe cases shone in the light of the setting sun. I knew what I would find if I opened one, five Med-X's lined up like ducks in a row, taunting me. Calling me. I sat and stared at their shine until the sun disappeared and I could no longer see them.

I closed the duffle bag and fell back into my roll. Jacob's words were turning around in my head, dancing and chanting around in circles. _I trust in you, you're going to do great._

I fell asleep to the lullaby of that lie.

WORK ON YOUR SETTING

Dialogue you're OK at, but you have got to work on how characters are reacting physically, and where they are. It's essential to a reader visualizing. Get your descriptions better, make one of the main character, and make them shorter and more to the point so your dialogue is pre-dominant while you still have a large amount of visual


	3. Dreams and Disappearances

We left with Alex opening his stash, having a petty little "Oh I'm a bad person I do drugs and lie to people" so then he goes to sleep. What we need to decide now, me and your mr. computer screen, is whether we're going to have him wake up that night with being kidnapped, o if we'll let them get on the road for a few days loneger. If we stick them on the road for a couple days, it'll put some distance between raider bases, which is more realistic, and we can make the party as a whole either slow down considerably after that, or go on a side route. By the time they get to their next town, ST. George is 50 miles out from Cedar, so maybe change something from Chp. 2 so that St. George is farther than 20 miles from where the party currently is. I want Jacob alive a few chapters, but dead by the time they either get to the town or prepare to leave it, the aforementioned may be easier to write, unless you want to bring in some gang related violence of sorts. I want character development between Alex and the guard who pisses me off by not having a name fall from the heavens for him, The Guard needs to not give a damn at the beginning of chp. 3 and by the time Jacob dies, whenever that will be, I want him to give in to at least not hating Alex.

So that's a short summary of a few chapters. What needs to happen in 3 is showing who TheGuards character is, the kidnapping of Jacob (A difficult scene, if you want it in the middle of the wasteland and to be solved cleverly.) The guard needs to wake him up, this is where I would like it if it was the night of. Then, there would still be travelling time, as well as this being their first meeting. BUT, I also want a rocky relationship established between the two first, so I think 3 days ought to be around the right time, give it enough time that Jacob begins to seem like a fatherly figure? Don't be worried when it inevitably turns out imperfect, you're learning how to show character still. So, Jacob will be kidnapped. Alex will be woken up by TheGuard to go save him. TheGuard has a plan of attack, to leave Alex with a sniper[subject to change] while he takes point. Alex watches while shit goes down and Theguard gets captured.

-Now might be a fun time to show a stealth boy, just saying-

Alex figures out a way to take out the few Fiends. Brief physical scuffle insues with the last one, Alex gets the shit beat out of him while still sore. The other Fiends go running, they tie up Alex's fiend.

Everyone else is like 'Oh ya murder' and Alex is like 'wat no' and theres an odd look in theguards eye and there is homoerotic subtext bc they obv want to get into each others pants

My dreams that night began as they usually do.

He was standing alone in the middle of the storm again, kneeling as if in prayer. The wind was whipping up sand in a circle around him and lightning was streaking across the sky. I knew it was pointless, but I ran as fast as I could towards him. The ground started sliding beneath me, pulling me away, but I doubled my efforts and sprinted after him.

I got closer than I had ever gotten before. He was only a few feet ahead of me, if I could just get closer…

I stretched out my arm to grab him, but he was still at least a foot away. I screamed silently for him, but he wouldn't answer. The ground was sliding faster now, causing me to run pointlessly in place. I pumped my legs as hard as I could, but he remained out of reach, his back turned towards me.

Distance streaks of white rose into the sky far ahead of both of us. They turned toward us and slowly began getting larger, picking up speed. A high pitched whistling rose to my ears and I panicked, jumping desperately to get to him before the missiles struck.

I sailed through the air and reached out, my hand inches away from his arm, closer than I had ever gotten…

I fell heavily on my stomach and was whisked away on the moving ground. I quickly lost sight of him, but could still see the streaks of white closing in on him. I tried screaming, but it was no use. They all landed at the same time.

The explosion rocked the world. Light flared up instantly, blinding me, but faded away just as the first wave of wind hit. Rocks and Sand rushed past me, pelting me mercilessly on their way. I closed my eyes and held up my arms in a vain attempt at protecting myself.

The wind stopped suddenly. I cautiously opened my eyes and saw an expanding wall of fire rushing towards me. I scrambled to my feet and tried to run, but it washed over me, burning, burning…

I jolted awake, breathing heavily.

Once my I got back to my senses, I realized I was still at camp. The fire had gone out, but I could still see the Brahmin herd in the dim moonlight, wandering in aimless circles, staying in the same general area.

Jacob wasn't in his bedroll, but I wasn't worried. He was on watch, and was most likely scouting the perimeter so we weren't surprised by anything.

I couldn't see his face, but I could tell Kevin was in his bedroll by the short black hair poking out of the opening. He was not a very friendly person, the morning after I had woken up from Stimpak-induced coma, I had gone to thank him for his part in saving me, and in allowing me to journey with them. He only replied with a cold "Don't slow us down."

For the past 3 days since, he hadn't spoken a word to me while we travelled together. Whenever I fell behind because of my injury, or had to call for a break, he stared at me with cold anger burning in his eyes. Every time Jacob offered that I ride a Brahmin, to not overstress while I recovered, Kevin looked as disgusted with me as he would if I had begged for a ride. I said no regardless of sore legs or aching chest.

My train of thought was interrupted by Kevin turning in his sleep, muttering slightly. I could see his face for a fraction of a second before he turned back out of view. He was scowling in his sleep, as if he could sense my presence. If Jacob weren't vouching for me, Kevin would probably kill me or kick me out, and I don't think he would be too picky about which one he chose.

Turning my mind away from Kevin, I knew that I should be going back to sleep. I would be walking another eight miles over bad terrain tomorrow, and I needed all the rest I could get. I had to be responsible and do everything in my power to get what I needed. I most certainly would not, say, watch vids until Jacob got back and I had someone to talk to. Not at all.

I pulled out the Holoplayer and browsed for a vid to watch. I selected some odd title made in the 1990's and settled into my bedroll to enjoy. The movie started and the intro title nearly woke Kevin up before I remembered to plug in an earpiece receiver and put the wireless bud in my ear. The light from the player stretched off into the night, falling short at about 10 feet.

I watched vids for a while, staring at the projected screen and finishing one, selecting another as the moon slowly peaked in its ascent and began to fall. I glanced over at the empty bedroll occasionally, more often as time went on with mounting anxiety. He should have been back.

I eventually ignored the vid entirely, it was just background noise as I just stared at the empty bedroll. I switched off the Player and put away the earpiece set, stowing them back in the duffle bag, adamantly refusing to look at the Med-X containers lying at the bottom and the single empty syringe.

I crawled out of my bedroll and stood up, my legs crying and threatening to buckle after days of endless walking. I walked stiffly over to Jacob's bedroll and saw a trail of footprints leading away, off into the dark. I turned around to wake Kevin and have him help me, but his scowling face made me stop.

No, I thought. I don't need to cry for help. I can do it on my own.

I set off after the tracks, following them into the night.

After 3 minutes, I saw a second trail of footsteps, side-by-side to Jacob's.

After 7 minutes, A third appeared.

After I had been following the trail for a full 10 minutes, I came across a small area with footsteps everywhere. The dim moonlight made it difficult to see, and I sorely regretted not bringing a flashlight, but it was obvious that a fight had taken place here, there were skid marks from people falling and small bloodstains on the sand.

Worse, there was a large trail in between two sets of feet leading out of the area as if someone had been dragged

A ball of fear began forming in my stomach. This couldn't be happening.

I followed it for a few minutes till it led me to a small bluff. The trail circled off to the left and down to the foot of the bluff where, to my horror, I could see the glow of a small fire and hear talking voices.

I instantly regretted not calling Kevin as I peeked over the edge of the bluff and saw four men, in odd tribal gear, gathered around a campfire, laughing and drinking. To their left Jacob, cowboy hat missing, had been hog-tied. His head was dangling, rolling around every few seconds, giving me a view of a very black eye and bloody nose.

I scrambled back to my feet and sprinted back towards camp.

I burst back into the campsite, gasping for air and about to fall over from fatigue. I stumbled over to Kevin's bedroll where I could hear him snoring softly and hit him upside the head to wake him up.

Before I knew it, I was on the ground with a knee pressed against my chest. Kevin was leaning over me, arm pressed against my throat, eyes blazing with fury. Once he realized it was me, his stare became cold instead of hot, but his arm didn't exactly relax.

"What was that for?" He demanded, anger seeping into his usually cold voice.

I gasped for air "Jacob - trouble - needs - help!

That got his attention. He eased up on the pressure on my throat and chest and I rolled out from under him, coughing horribly.

"What do you mean?" He asked, forgetting to put the loathing in his words he usually fits in.

"It means he's been captured" I said, still on the ground rubbing my bruised throat. "I saw him about 10 minutes from here." I pointed towards the trail and continued "He was tied up in the company of these… odd looking raiders. Horned headdresses, unusual armor."

"Those would be fiends" He said coldly, apparently remembering to infuse every word with loathing again. "How many were there?"

"I saw four, there could be more, I don't know! Listen, we have to go help!"

"Obviously." He said, rolling his eyes as if I was a child he had to put up with "But there is no 'we' about it. I'm going alone, you won't be able to handle yourself."

Defiance welled up inside me. I rose to my feet and stared him in the eye. "I can handle myself perfectly well, thank you very much! And I am helping!"

He met my angry gaze with a hard, indifferent one. We held eye contact for what seemed like an eternity, his blue eyes boring into me and scanning my resolve. Finally, he said "Alright. It's your head." and walked towards the trial

I started following behind him when he stopped, turned his head, and said a few words.

"Don't slow me down."

Before sprinting off after the trail.

My legs hurt and my chest ached, but I ran as fast as I could after him and didn't get more than a few feet behind him the entire way.


	4. Finding the Broken

I knelt down at the top of the bluff next to Kevin.

"How are we going to get him out?" I panted, out of breath from keeping up with him.

He peered over the edge at the group of Fiends below. There were four, in a circle around a fire, and they had begun to drink and see who could vomit the farthest. They were getting some impressive distance. Meanwhile, Jacob was still hog-tied at the edge of the fires light. His face was bloodier than it was before I had left, and there was a new bruise forming on his forehead.

"Something tells me it won't be difficult to get him away from these idiots." He said, staring coldly at the group below. "But we don't know if there are more. It doesn't make sense to lower their guard after discovering somebody was near their campsite. Either there are more, or these idiots are truly idiotic."

I watched one of them take off their helmet, vomit in it, and put it back on, grinning.

"They might just be idiotic." I suggested.

"I still don't like it." Kevin muttered.

His eyes flicked back and forth between each of the fiends, analyzing their behavior. Every once in a while the light from the fire below us would catch in his eye, making them glow gold before returning to its natural deep brown. His jaw clenched and unclenched as he tried to piece together what the fiends were playing at.

"I don't like it." He grumbled. "They set up camp in a place with one entrance and no escape. The ramps that go down to that entrance," He pointed to our left and right to where the ground sloped down towards the entrance to the ring, making a horseshoe that we were at the back of. "Could be stationed with snipers, and anybody down there wouldn't stand a chance. I could drop a grenade right on top of them from up here and all that would be left would be pieces."

"So isn't that good for us?"

He looked at me like I was an idiot "Anybody would realize that the only thing they gain by camping here would be dying young. If they're here, it's either a trap or they want to die. I suggest we-"

He was cut off by a sudden shout from below. We looked down and saw that the biggest fiend had grabbed a baseball bat from one of his friends. He gave another shout and the others roared their approval. He swung down and hit Jacobs's side hard.

A spike of fear shot through me and Kevin tensed at my side. Jacob groaned and rolled over and was hit again in this chest. The crowd laughed and drank as the fiend prepared to swing again.

Kevin was staring down at them, for once losing his cold calculated posture. Fear shone through his eyes and his lips were parted in shock. His knuckles were glowing as white as his cheeks from how hard he was clenching.

I knew I didn't look much better, but I had to do something. I stood up and pulled him up with me, the muscles in my arms screaming that they hadn't recovered yet. His gaze was locked on Jacob as he was hit again, this time letting out a weak cry of pain. I shook him hard and eventually his head turned slowly towards me. His eyes were wide and he tried speaking, but he only managed to open and close his mouth weakly.

"We need to get down there now." I stared into his eyes "Or else Jacob is dead."

Now that he wasn't watching Jacob, he recovered slightly, the fear receding from his eyes and jaw locking back into a determined position. He did not regain his cold composure, and when he spoke it was with a quiver, but he said "Yes we do."

It might have been the first thing he said to me that wasn't cold and condescending.

Feeling like an idiot, I walked as confidently as I could directly towards the camp. The fiends were gathered in a semicircle, all focused on Jacob with their back towards me. They had stopped hitting him, but they were laughing and jeering at how weak he was.

Well, I thought miserably. If they think he's weak then I wonder what they'll think about the toothpick walking towards them now.

I called out as loud as I could, hoping I would be heard over the laughter and insults "Hello! I thought we would talk."

They didn't hear it and began poking Jacob with their sticks, or in the case of the big one, a baseball bat.

"HELLO!" I tried again, stepping into the fires light.

It worked, but once the four of them turned and stared at me, I wish it hadn't. They all stopped laughing at once and it was dead silent except for the sound of my footsteps as I walked closer to them. I quickly stopped and we stood, staring at each other, for what felt like an eternity as I thought of what to say.

"Hey! I thought I would, erm, drop on in. To see how you are, uh, doing." I finished lamely, wishing that I had worked on my speech a little more.

They made no visible sign of recognition, only the silent stare that they were giving me.

I gulped "I see that you're a party of few words!"

No response.

"To the point then?" I asked nervously, twisting my hands out of habit. "We, erm I, only me, was, are, wondering if we could have our friend back."

They didn't move, but the shortest of the group called back "Why?"

"Because we need to… um… get him to safety?" I wondered if the group really was just idiotic. They were beating him to death and they wanted to know why we wanted him back? Then again, I was the one that was just asking nicely to have him back, so I might be the idiot in this situation.

"Safety?" The big one asked quietly. Then, louder "We found him wandering in the dessert! He could have been hurt, or worse, he could have been taken too! We're protection him, this is the safest place on earth!" The group yelled their approval, and they began laughing again. The fire blazing behind them silhouetted them, and it made the group look even more insane.

Off to the side, behind the fiends, Jacob groaned in pain and rolled out of the fire light. I hoped desperately that he would be okay.

The largest one began turning to see the noise. I had to keep his attention "Why is this the safest place on earth?" I asked quickly.

He looked back at me, half turned to where Jacob was, and gave me a half-toothed grin. "It's safest here because they can't get you here! We've already been taken so it won't happen again, and if you're with us instead of wandering the dessert you won't get taken either! Stay with us till the end!"

"The end of what?" I just needed a little more time.

"The end of our world!" He yelled, and the others yelled in agreement. "They took us and they told us they was gonna fix everything, but they'll ruin it all. Everyone not special is going to die"

I heard a light footstep behind me and the words "It's done" breathed into my ear.

"Wait for me" I breathed back.

"Who's they?" I called to them

"The testers!" The large on said dramatically, and the group cowered in fear "They want to bring you aboard and look at your genes, show all of your insides on a screen where everybody can see you."

This man was insane. So far, he seemed to believe he had met aliens. "Did they, um, probe you?" I asked, fighting to keep a straight face despite the fire situation.

He glared at me "You think I'm a liar? That I'm making this up? Maybe we won't protect you. If you don't believe us, why should we welcome you into our good graces?"

"Yep that's fine" I said, backing away slowly as the crowd advanced on me. "I don't believe you, don't protect me, I'll go strike it on my own and get captured."

He stared at me and the fire shone in his eyes, giving him a crazy look. "No, I would never abandon an ally in this war against them." He panted. "You'll be safe because we're going to protect you."

The group surrounded me and I stumbled backwards as everything went dark.

I scrambled up the slope as best I could in the near pitch black, ignoring the shouts and bellows of the insane men behind me. I could hear the footsteps next to me that told me Kevin had made it out, and his labored breathing told me he succeeded.

"Nice idea." I panted "To put out the fire like that."

We got to the top and the body of Jacob, which seemed to have been floating, was placed gently on the ground. Then Kevin materialized, ripping a smoking device off his wrist that left the area red and burned. The stealth boy sparked and fizzed on the ground before melting. He pulled out a small bottle of water and poured a small bit of it on his wrist, wincing as it made contact. Only then he replied.

"He's bleeding badly. He needs help." The quiver was there, more pronounced than earlier.

I wondered if this was how it had been with me. Two people standing alone and terrified in the dead of night, helpless to stop their companion bleeding out, so worried that the coldest person in the world had to take shaky breaths.

No, I thought. Kevin knows this man and is worried. I was a stranger. They weren't as afraid as we are now.

Kevin ripped off a piece of his shirt and bandaged one of the nasty cuts on Jacob's arm. I did the same for one on his leg. We did this, trying to ignore the shouting's of the men below, trying to ignore the too-shallow breathing and the too-pale face. We couldn't help any of that yet."

"We need to clean these wounds back at camp and then… find a solution."

His voice surprised me. The quiver that had taken a hold of him was stronger than a few seconds ago, and the fear shone clearly from behind his eyes.

I carefully hoisted Jacob up into my arms, shivering at the touch of his too-cold skin and nearly staggering under the weight. Kevin reached out his hand to take him, but I ignored it. I was not going to let him think that I was unwilling to bear the load for the man who saved my life. Besides, whenever Kevin looked at or touched Jacob when he was in this position, he lost his posture and it was difficult for him to get it together. He needed to be as collected as possible.

He took back his hand wordlessly and we set off. My arms began to ache and my legs screamed with each heavy footstep, but I followed.

Once we got back to camp, I laid Jacob down on a blanket Kevin set out. Kevin started pulling off bandages and cleaning the wounds. Every once in a while I would wipe some blood out of Jacobs mouth.

We knelt there, cleaning out every cut possible and applying bandages to them, and then going back and replacing those bandages directly afterward. We didn't talk about what needed to be done. The ribs we knew were cracked. The bleeding we knew we couldn't stop.

Finally Kevin pulled out a half-empty syringe from his bag. I tied Jacob as best I could down so he couldn't hurt himself, and stuffed his mouth so he wouldn't scream.

"We could make it to St. George tomorrow night" Kevin said quietly "We could wait until then, and let a doctor handle this."

But even as he said it, he was preparing to inject the syringe. We both knew that there was no chance he would make it till then. We also knew that Jacob wouldn't walk away from a Stimpak like I did. It was a lose-lose situation.

"Do it."

He nodded, but didn't move his hand from where it was hovering. His face was pale and covered in sweat. His hands trembled violently.

"If he dies from this, then it will be no different from us taking him to St. George. We have a chance to help him now and we're going to take it." I stared into his eyes, trying to get him to hear the words, but he may as well have tuned out.

He nodded again but didn't move.

I took the syringe from him and he nodded again, not noticing that it was gone. I carefully slid it into the injection point and released the contents, pulling it back out quickly and guiding Kevin away.

Almost at once Jacob began to thrash, stretching his muscles to their limits, thumping against the ground like a fish out of water. We tried not to watch as he convulsed. Eventually he stopped and began shivering horribly. Kevin threw a blanket on him and we each returned to our bedrolls to sleep.

I laid down and tried to sleep. Tomorrow we would have to close the remaining distance to St. George or Jacob would have no chance. A 50-year old could not deal with a Stimpak like a 20-year old could, he needed a doctor.

Jacob began thrashing again, thumping the ground silently behind me where I couldn't see. There was no helping that. I had to go to sleep.

After what felt like hours I managed to fall asleep, but I was met only with dreams full of Him.


	5. The Oasis

We woke up as soon as the sun came up. I got Jacobs stuff together while Kevin readied the Brahmin. He refused to so much as glance at Jacob, so I was left picking him up and trying to situate him on a Brahmin. After several unsuccessful attempts and Jacob nearly falling off, Kevin finally walked over and picked him up.

"Grab the Brahmin, I'll carry him." His voice was so soft that I almost didn't hear him, and the quiver from the night before had seeped back in.

I had had a total of 3 days of experience with herding Brahmin prior to this, most of it spent recovering from a massive injury. As a result, I was far from an expert and it was nearly impossible to get them to move. It was harder still to keep them together while they walked. For an hour I pushed, pulled, and bullied the Brahmin into following Kevin, constantly making him stop and wait as I stopped the dumb animals from falling into ditches.

"This is taking too long" I panted as I tried desperately to pull the Brahmin away from a bluff it was interested in "I'm no good with these, you're the caravan guard that's been doing this for eight months. I'll carry Jacob, we'll go faster"

Kevin kept walking.

I ran up to him, abandoning the cow, and grabbed his shoulder to get his attention.

He tensed up in surprise, and turned to look at me, or, more accurately, down at me.

"What?" He demanded, giving me his best death stare.

I held his eyes, looking up at him determinedly. "I'm no good with Brahmin. You've been dealing with them this entire trip, and we'll go a lot faster if we switch places. For Jacob."

His grip on Jacob tightened when I mentioned taking him. But now it relaxed slightly and he nodded. He passed Jacob gingerly over to me and turned to the animals.

He whistled once and the Brahmin instantly turned around and walked towards him, mooing and nuzzling his face. He silently gathered the Brahmin back together in a tight, organized formation.

I couldn't believe how much lighter Jacob had already gotten overnight. It felt like he had burned through twenty pounds in his sleep, and from looking at his hollowing cheeks I would have guessed even more than that. His head hung loosely over my arm at an awkward angle that gave it the look of being broken. His face was slack and pale, sweat beading up on his forehead. I could barely hear his breathing, rapid and shallow, but extremely weak. His entire body seemed to vibrate. It was hard to believe he had been so full and healthy a day ago.

Kevin began walking with the herd and I followed, limp body in hand. I almost regretted switching, even though we were already moving at twice our usual pace. It was impossible to think of anything else when a body was dragging down on you like deadweight. My arms already began to ache and my legs began begging for a break.

The aches and pains that I had felt so constantly the days directly after my Stimpak began coming back. The scar on my stomach prickled uncomfortably, my head began to ache horribly, the veins along my hands and arms began to bulge out.

One step at a time. All I had to do was follow Kevin. One step, another. Keep Kevin in your sight, you'll be fine.

The sun beat down mercilessly on me as it rose. Finally it reached its peak and we had a small lunch break where it had mercy on me by hiding behind a cloud. But after that, once we were back on the trail, it came right back out and roasted me.

One step at a time. Follow Kevin. One step. Repeat.

My arms stopped feeling sore. In fact, I couldn't feel them at all. My legs, too, had gone numb, which was good because otherwise I would feel the heat from the sun there as well.

I stumbled once and Kevin looked over. I waved to him that I was fine. And I was. I was on my feet. A little dizzy, but okay. I kept walking.

One. Two. Three steps. Keep going.

I need to follow Him.

He was walking ahead of me in the desert. I didn't know where Kevin had gone, but that wasn't important. I staggered forward, trying to keep up with him. I yelled at him but he refused to respond. The sun was getting hotter and hotter, and I could feel my skin beginning to boil. Finally he stopped and I ran towards him as fast as I could, careful not to drop Jacob. If I could just get to him it would be fine.

He disappeared and instead there was my bag on the ground. I stumbled over to it and set Jacob down beside it, hands trembling. I ratcheted through it as quickly as I could, searching until I found it.

Finally, at the bottom, there it was. A case. I opened it and ignored the three empty vials and picked up one of the other two. I held it up triumphantly to the light of the sun and saw that the sun had gone. Instead He was standing above me, his eyes glowing bright.

He grabbed my wrist and the vial dissolved. He stared into my eyes and I could not look away. I could feel the light pour into my body, filling me up and heating my insides. I felt as my body began to dissolve with that vial and my vision got brighter and brighter until all I could see was the impossibly bright light.

A silhouette appeared in front of the light. A head. My eyes adjusted a little more and I realized it was a man, and he was doing something with his hand I couldn't see.

I tried to speak but my throat was too dry and all that came was a quiet croak.

My eyes adjusted more and I could see that it was not Him, but it was Kevin. He had a wet rag in his hand and he was pressing it on my forehead, and suddenly I could feel the amazing cold of it. A drop trickled down my face and across my cheek, leaving a trail of bliss behind it.

Kevin had a look of worry on his face. For me? No, he was glancing off to the side. I looked, and there was Jacob, lying on the ground with a small sort of tent erected to keep the sun off him. Guilt stabbed at my heart. Did I drop him?

"You set him down before you fell." Kevin said as if he had read my mind. "You began behaving very strangely and then fainted. Heat Stroke."

I grunted and sat up, ignoring the wave of dizziness that hit me.

"Let's get going." I said determinedly.

He looked at me like I was insane. "You've just had a heat stroke. Take a break. You're useless if you go into a coma or get a fever, I don't need to deal with two useless bodies today."

He left me with a bottle of water and went to take care of Jacob. I saw his hands tremble and face go pale as he pressed another water bottle against Jacobs parched lips and murmur something to him.

I lifted my hand to my face and saw that it was trembling even worse than Kevin's. I had a horrible urge to get my bag, to just get it and damn all consequences. I clenched my fist in determination. No, I didn't need to.

I stood up shakily and took a long drink from the water bottle. My arm ached from the simple effort of lifting it to my mouth and my legs felt like they would give out at any moment, but I was up. I could move.

"Let's go."

He barely looked at me "Next time you need a break, call one."

"I didn't need a break." I insisted stubbornly.

"All right then," He said as he stood up "I'll remember that next time you faint in 112° heat that you don't need a break and that I should move on."

I stayed silent and made to pick up Jacob, but Kevin already had. He hoisted him up into his arms carefully and straightened up.

"The Brahmins have re-learned the manners they forgot overnight. They won't give you any trouble." He said "And call a break if you need one. I don't want your incompetence to put Jacob at risk any more than you did already. It was a miracle you set him down gently before you fell."

He walked away and left me there fuming. Though once the Brahmin began to follow Kevin the anger at being treated like a child was instantly replaced by fear. Being near my bag was the last place I wanted to be right now.

Still, I followed. Jacob was the priority problem right now, anything I had could wait.

We walked silently as the sun got closer and closer to the horizon. Jacob was breathing harder than before, and ten feet behind him with the Brahmin mooing in my ear I could easily hear him. We had to get there soon.

Finally a light appeared in the distance. As we got closer, I saw that it was a light fixed to a pole about chest level. It was blinking and pulsing at a regular pace, and I saw that to either side there was another, about every 50 feet, forming a ring that stretched off beyond where I could see.

"Oasis Lights." Kevin said "They're put out so that travelers don't get lost. Come on, we're close."

We passed the glowing lights and almost instantly shapes began to form on the horizon, silhouetted by the setting sun. First, a radio tower. Then, the tallest buildings. After half an hour the entire town had come into view, a large collection of small flat houses with the occasional tall house or tower.

The entire place was surrounded by a boarded chain link fence. We approached the gate, expecting somebody to come out and get us.

Finally, I knocked on the gate. "Hello?" I called as loudly as I could "We need medical help out here!"

Kevin propped Jacob against the fence and pounded on the gate. "We've got wounded, let us in!" He yelled.

There was a soft thud in the sand next to us and when I looked me saw a tall, lanky men draw himself up off the ground. "Well," He drawled "Look what the cat dragged in."

Kevin pushed past me towards the man. "Tell your people to open the gate now." He growled.

"Oh I don't know," he said lazily, barely glancing at Kevin "Do you have the fee?"

"Fee?" Kevin bristled "There is no fee! This is a registered Oasis by the Ncr, it's illegal to charge people to enter!"

"Ah," He said with a smile "Then it's a good thing the Ncr isn't here, isn't it?"

"You punk, you better let us in or I'll-" Kevin began angrily, jamming his finger in the man's chest.

But the man cut him off "Or else what?!" he yelled, suddenly furious "What are you going to do? I own this town, man! You can't do shit, you got no power!"

Suddenly the gate opened up and two large gorilla-like men stepped out. They cracked their knuckles threateningly and glowered down at us, making even Kevin seem small.

"You don't want to get me on your bad side." The man said quietly, threateningly.

The gate opened again and this time an old man's head peered through.

"Leave Set. Stop harassing these travelers."

The man, Set, instantly relaxed. "Of course." He said smoothly, and scrambled up the fence so fast that I could barely catch it.

His goons looked around, confused, for their leader. After a few moments they realized he wasn't there, and they bumbled past the man back into the town.

"Come in, come in." The old man muttered in a frail voice. "Come, your friend needs help. I'm John and I'm sorry I wasn't out here earlier, Set's people distracted me so he could charge you. Glad it didn't work. Follow me, I'll make sure your Brahmin get taken care of."

Kevin picked Jacob up and I slipped my bag off the Brahmin. We both followed John into the streets of St. George.

"Sorry about him. He's a petty gang leader, the only one you'll find here, and he likes causing trouble where he can."

"Why don't you get rid of him?" Kevin growled, clutching so tightly to Jacob his knuckles turned white.

"Not worth it, it's his goons that we need to worry about." John replied in his feeble voice.

No, I thought. You do need to worry about Set. His goons don't have a mind of their own, if you took out Set and left them they would go off and find some occupation in waste disposal. Cut of the head of the snake.

"Please, do not allow him to blemish the sight of our fine town. Come, come, the Dixie Hospital is this way."

We followed him through the perfectly straight streets and perfectly square blocks and half-listened to his narration.

"This town is one of the finest Oasis's the Ncr has. Our Old World city wasn't hit nearly as hard by the nuclear strikes as most anywhere else, so our buildings are all mostly intact. Our hospital is the best you can find till you hit Vegas, we've got food and board, all complimentary of the Ncr, and this town holds the record for the largest-"

"We're really just most interested in the hospital." I cut him off as we approached one of the few large buildings, presumably the hospital.

"Well, all right. We've got an extensive collection of Old World medical technology, and judging by the state of your friend there, you're gonna need it."

We followed John to the large, squarish hospital building and into a spacious room with a desk and worker at the far end. Everything was spotless, walls, windows, and floor. Not a speck of dust could be seen and nothing was out of place.

The man at the desk got up the moment he saw us and rushed over. He had a little nametag on his chest that read "Brian". Brian very quickly checked Jacob's pulse and began furiously interrogating Kevin.

"What's the problem?" He demanded, pulling out a notepad.

"Stimpak." Brian made some notes.

"Time since injection?"

"18 hours or so"

"How much did you use?"

"Half a vial."

Brian froze for a second and began scribbling notes even more furiously.

"For future reference." He said as he ripped off the page he was writing on and tossed the notepad aside. "Most injuries could be healed with an 8'Th or less, slower but safer." He beckoned us to follow him and led us further into the building, up a few sets of stairs, and finally into a hospital room with a patients table in the middle and a variety of complicated machines against the far wall.

"A doctor will be in here shortly" Brian said as he pressed the page of notes into my hand "Give this to him and make sure to tell him about any known medical conditions your friend has. I'll get busy getting you two a place to stay and eat while your friend recovers, Oasis policy. You two a couple?"

"No." Kevin said quickly at the same time that I tried to sputter out the same response.

"Alright then, "He continued, unfazed "separate rooms. He'll be in shortly."

Kevin laid Jacob out gingerly on the patient table and rearranged him so he would be more comfortable if he woke up. He spent a long few minutes busying himself with that, but soon we were sitting in tense silence.

"So, not a couple, eh?" I joked half-heartedly, trying to break the silence.

"Obviously." He replied without looking up from Jacob.

"And here I was thinking all the signs were there." I attempted again.

"Shut up."

Finally, a man in a white coat hurried in. He grabbed my hand instantly, me being closet to the doorway, and introduced himself quickly, barely breathing as he spoke. "Hi, my name is Sam, good to meet you, have you got my note? Good. I'll just get him hooked up to this IV here, sorry to step on your foot, excuse me, alright that's done."

He was moving very frantically about the room, hooking Jacob up to all sorts of machines and tubes, before finally moving over to an odd looking machine like a metal arm with a clamp instead of fingers.

"Come help me with this." He beckoned to me.

Both Kevin and I got up to help him, and we pushed the surprisingly heavy machine till it was at Jacob's side. Sam began pushing at several buttons on its side and said without looking up. "So I assume both of you know how a Stimpak works?"

Neither of us responded, so he continued on "A Stimpak is some advanced Old World tech, some of the stuff we still haven't quite understood how works yet. The Stimpak fluid was created in a lab and programmed to behave a very specific way inside of a body. By its nature, the fluid contains a lot of energy, so is able to speed a course around the entire body within seconds. They pick up as much speed as possible and then gang up on a chosen nucleus of a chosen cell and smash into it with all they've got. It breaks open, releases energy, and once the fluid takes a portion of that energy to speed up again, it delivers the rest of that energy to our body for use in healing. This all happens very quickly and to many cells per second, and so what they've achieved is low-level fusion within the human body."

He clamped the machine down on Jacob's arm.

"The only thing stopping the fluid from turning you into an atom bomb is the programming. That's the bit we don't understand, how the programming works, but we know it does and that's all that matters. It literally breaks apart the energy in your cells to heal the cells it spares."

He fiddled with the machines buttons a little more and there was a sharp slicing noise. Both Kevin and I jumped, but Jacob didn't stir. His breathing was so soft now it was almost inaudible. Sam made a calm down gesture.

"That's just the clamp, it stuck some small spikes in your friends arm to draw out the remaining fluid. Part of the programming, being attracted to what makes up those spikes. Stimpak fluid is great at its job, but it's too good. It stays long after the job is finished and keeps breaking up cells and creating energy. You may have noticed him get substantially thinner since the injection, and that's because he has been losing muscle mass at a dangerous rate, sacrificed for energy. The extra energy is causing his heart to pump faster and body to work harder, and if we don't get it out, he'll have a heart attack or he'll simply consume himself till he's skin and bones." He finished cheerfully, now scribbling some notes on a pad.

Kevin, who had been quiet this entire time, spoke up with a slight quiver in his voice "Will he be alright?" His brown eyes showed hints of fear. The doctor's talk of how dangerous Stimpaks were obviously had jarred him.

"Hard to say" He muttered and tore off the paper, handing it to him "But here's the room number that he will be staying in once we move him out of here, and the name of the hotel rooms you two will be staying in. You can, of course, decline the free room provided by the Ncr and purchase a better one at a hotel, but I'd suggest sticking to this."

The next second he was pushing out the door and closing it. "I'll be alone with my patient now, please don't bother me." His muffled voice floated through the door. "Don't visit till tomorrow or you might hear some disturbing things you don't want to."

Suddenly a howl of pain split the air and panting could be heard from inside the room. "Drawing Stimpak fluid out it at least as painful as putting it in, I suggest you leave now." The voice warned.

I had to drag Kevin, who looked like he was about to bust the door down, back to the lobby and out the door, thanking the attendant Brian along the way, who was now helping a man who appeared to have a nail in his foot.

I stepped out into the mostly empty street and breathed in the fresh air without a hint of disinfectant. Glorious. I checked the scrap of paper I had been given and the only directions were "Across the street"

I looked up and there was a flat two-story house with a sign in big block letters above it: Room and Board.

"Come on" I said to Kevin and started walking. I made it halfway across the street before I realized he hadn't followed.

"Come on!" I called "You're not doing any good just standing there."

But he was staring, furiously, down the road, and when I looked I saw what he was mad about.

Set, the lanky man, was strutting towards us. He stopped twenty or so feet away and called to us.

"So, have they decided to pull the plug on your useless friend?"

I had to jump on Kevin to stop him from storming over there, and eventually, despite him being roughly twice my size and three times as determined, I slowed him down for a second.

"Let me go." he snarled.

"No!" I panted, struggling desperately to keep him stopped. Without looking at me, he shoved me to the side and stormed up to Set.

The smug look on his face dropped and a flash of fear flicked on his face right before Kevin drew back his fist and smashed it into his nose.

Set fell backwards, clutching his nose and swearing. Kevin stood in the same place and panted, staring daggers at him as he rolled on the ground in pain.

Finally, he stood up again. His nose was bleeding horribly and looked like it was pointing the wrong direction, but his face was full of anger.

"You'll regret that." He whispered, voice hard and cold. "I will personally make your regret that." Before storming away.

I dragged Kevin away from the scene and in front of the hotel building.

"Don't lose control like that." I warned.

He glared at me "You have no right to tell me what to do." He spat

"No I don't, but I have every right to advise you to stop being a head-strong dumbass before you get yourself arrested. Can't help anyone in jail."

He opened his mouth to retort, but closed it again. His posture was one of resigned fury. "Fine." He snapped. "But if Set uses any violence whatsoever, I won't hesitate to throw him off a building."

"You drive a hard bargain, but I accept your terms"

For a fraction of a second the anger left his face and a small smile tugged at his lips, but then the moment was past and his cold anger returned.

"Now come on, it's getting late. We need sleep."

He nodded slightly and pushed past me into the building.

We checked in and were led to our small, dimly lit rooms, each with their own bathrooms and showers. Water pressure wasn't bad at all for a free room. After a heavenly shower after so long without one, I fell onto the soft thin mattress on the floor and passed out instantly.

For the first night in weeks, I didn't see a trace of Him in my dreams.


	6. The Radio Tower

"How did this happen?"

"W-we don't know sir, we found it like this when we came in for work this morning."

"Did you find anybody on security tapes?"

"We don't have s-security tapes."

Kevin scowled darkly. He ran his hand over the Brahmins body lying on the ground. It's normally bright red skin had faded to a pale pink overnight. I knelt by Kevin and placed my hand on its stomach. Its skin was already becoming tough and leathery.

Kevin slowly traced the gouge in the Brahmins neck with his finger. "Did you find the weapon?" He asked the pen worker nearby, who looked like he was ready to faint.

"Y-yes, small combat knife t-that was left in its throat. It had b-bled out so much already that when we took the k-knife out, no more bood came out." He stammered, glancing between the dead cow and Kevin in terror.

"Where's the knife?" He asked.

"I'll g-go get it." The worker said, looking as if he wanted to anything but hand the muscular angry man a weapon. He scrambled out of the pen and into the office building next to it, one of a hundred small one story houses.

Poor guy, I sympathised. Nobody should have to experience Kevin when he was irritated with you, there was nothing more terrifying. I would prefer to face down a house of raiders again.

"So do you think he did it?" I asked, nodding towards the brahmin "You weren't exactly the kindest person yesterday, breaking his nose."

Kevin glared at me and then went back to examining the corpse "It was his fault."

"His fault you broke his nose?"

"...Yes."

"What, did he hold your hand and hit himself with it?"

"Listen," He said irritably "Yes I think he did it, maybe because I hit him. Maybe. The point is, we have to show him that he can't mess with us."

"Are you kidding me?" I asked incredeuously "He's done what he will, he won't do anything else unless we provoke him. You and I both know he's a coward, so lets just let him hide in the corner till we leave. We don't need any more trouble."

"No, we need to end this now, then he won't mess with us." Kevin said, crouching a little lower and examining the wound more closely.

Jesus, I thought. Why did every solution Kevin come up with end up with beating more people up? He definitely has a one-track mind.

I was about to respond when I heard a door slam. I looked up and saw the worker scramble out of the office building, holding an object in his outstretched arms as far away from himself as possible, as if it was contaminated. Kevin looked up.

"Is that it?" He asked, once the worker got back to the pen.

"Y-yes." He quivered, still holding it as far away from himself as possible without it being in Kevins reach.

"Let me see it."

The workers eyes widened in fear, but he handed the knife silently to Kevin. For several moments Kevin exaimened the knife intently, as if all the secrets he could hope for were hidden inside of it, while the worker shook slightly. Suddenly, Kevin slammed it hilt-deep in the dirt. The worker squeeked.

"If another one of my brahmin dies, you'll face the consequences." He said coldly, staring at the young boy.

He nodded mutely and fled back to the office building.

I watched as he stumbled inside and slammed the door behind him. "You can't just scare people away that you don't like."

"Obviously, or you wouldn't be around."

"What's the purpose to it?"

"I'll do what I need to to make sure Jacob is safe."  
"But scaring that kid didn't help that at all! In fact, it didn't benefit you at all."

"Be quiet, I'm trying to figure this out."

"Seriously, you need to be kinder or else we'll get kicked out of town."

"Yeah yeah" He muttered as he examined the wound again. "I don't get it. It's not like his type to just cut and run like this. He has too much of a god complex to not gloat about what he did here."

I crouched next to him and watched as he traced the outline of knife's gash.

"yeah, well, maybe he thought we would just put two and two together and figure it out. Which we did. You need to realize not everyone is against you he-"

He put his hand over my mouth to stop me from talking and plunged his hand into the wound at the same time. He dug around for a moment, creating disgusting sucking noises that nearly made me vomit, and when he pulled his hand back out I saw flecks of crimson and a flash of white before he hid it in his pocket.

"Let's go." He murmured, standing up.

He walked out of the pens and into the streets. I followed, walking with him for several blocks, taking a few abrupt turns, until we ended up in an empty unpaved alley.

"So?" I asked "What did you find?"

He looked around once more before reaching into his pocket. He pulled out the scrap of paper I had glimpsed earlier and examined it carefully.

"It only has a few drops of blood on it…" He murmured "He must have put it in after the brahmin dried up. How long did he stay there?"  
"Let's talk less about Set waiting next to a bleeding brahmin for hours and talk more about whats on the note that you just stuck your hand in a corpse for."

He unfolded it quickly and stared at it for a moment. "I am the ruler of the desert." He read coldly "You do not disrespect the god of the town. Set." Kevin made a noise of disgust as he crumpled up the piece of paper and threw it at the wall.

"Is that it?" I asked incredeously.

"Yes." Kevin replied coldly, pacing back and forth.

"What did that accomplish?"  
"We know he did it now."

"We knew that before!"

"Not for sure."

"Well, now that we know for sure, can we use his signature there to turn him in?"

"No, he never actually admits to the crime in the note. We need to bring him in directly."

"You always go back to the punching-him-in-the-face thing, don't you?" I sighed.

He glared at me "He endagered Jacobs life at the gate by refusing us entry. We cannot let that slide."

"He stopped us for a total of three minutes!" I exclaimed in exasperation "That's not exactly life endangerment! Besides, we got Jacob to the hospital. You visiteded him this morning, you know he's fine."

Jacobs stare lost its intensity and shifted to the ground. His hand began shaking slightly as he shoved it in his pocket.

"Er, he is fine? Isn't he?" I asked.

He stared at the ground for a while before answering. "The doctor said that the fluid has been drawn out, but the body has suffered major trauma. He's fighting to keep Jacob's heart beating after such a huge energy withdrawal, and even if he survives, he will not make a full recovery."

The words washed over me like a wave, tearing the warmth out of my body and taking it away. The tips of my fingers felt numb and my chest was hollow and cold.

"W-what?" I stammered "Why didn't you tell me?"

He looked back up and stared at me, not with the anger of his usual glare, but something more empathetic. "Because he saved your life and I knew that made you concerned for his safety. You knowing that you could not save his was not going to help you any, only make you feel worse."

Spot on analysis, it certainly did make me feel worse. I couldn't think about anything besides how I slowed the caravan down the other day. My inability to herd the Brahmin, my passing out, if I hadn't been there Kevin could have gotten here hours earlier. If they hadn't ever picked me up from the raiders base they wouldn't have waited for three days while I was unconsciouss. They wouldn't have been slowed down for another 3 while I was recovering. Jacob wouldn't have been captured at all.

My legs felt weak and I sat heavily on the unpaved dirt, leaning my head agaisnt the wall and closing my eyes.

"I still don't think we should go after Set."

"Why?" Kevin asked "You know now what he helped cause, he's worthless and doesn't care about anyone but himself!" Anger was beginning to creep into his expression, and each word was more forceful. "Are you too much of a coward to go after him?!"

I let my hand rest on the 9mm on my hip. It was cold to the touch, and I knew without looking it was in perfect condition besides a small scratch. Clip missing one bullet.

"I just think we shouldn't cause pain where it doesn't need to exist."

"Whatever" Kevin grunted

I rose to my feet, still shaking slightly from the news. I brushed off my pants and softly said "Come on, let's get back t-"

Suddenly I heard an explosion nearby and a tremor pass through the ground. Both Kevin and I fell over on top of each other, ending in a tangle of limbs. Once I got myself out of the thicket of it, I looked up and saw a smoke trail rising into the air a block away. Sirens began wailing around us as an alarm was raised.

Kevin got to his feet in a heartbeat. He grabbed my neck and hoisted me up into a standing position. "Come on!" he yelled over the sirens "We need to know what's going on!"

Kevin took off at a run and I set off after him as fast as I could. He turned the corner and dissapeaered from sight. By the time I reached it he was far ahead of me, standing in front of the burning building with a small crowd of onlookers.

The top story of the two story house was completely in flames, and the bottom floor was getting there. The fire climbed high in the air and let off so much smoke that the noon-time sun was completely covered. Flames leapt out from windows and sputtered out. The closer I got to Kevin the heavier the stench of smoke was in the air, and by the time I got to him I was coughing consistantly.

"Is-There-Anybody-In-There!" I managed.

He, too, was covering his mouth with his arm and coughing violently. "I-Don't-Know!"

Suddenly a scream of pain broke the air and set my hair on edge.

"Where-Is-Help?!"

Suddenly one of the onlookers pointed and shouted so that everybody would turn and look "There they are!"

3 people were rushing towards us, each clothed in a thick yellow fire suit. One carried a stretcher and the other two various medical equipment, they all ran as fast as they could to the house, dumping their stuff on the ground before dissapearing inside.

"Come on!" I yelled "They need help!"

I rushed towards the door, but my throat almost instantly felt like it was being crushed and I was pulled backwards, falling on the ground. I smacked my head hard and stared up, dazed, at Kevin, who shouted loudly "Now is not the time to play hero idiot! You can barely breathe out here, how would you manage in there?"

Ignoring him, I clumsily rose back to my feet and made for the door again. This time, instead of being grabbed by my shirt and choked, I felt a set of arms cross over my chest and lift me into the air. I kicked and struggled but Kevin kept me elavated, backing away from the door slowly.

"I won't let the last person Jacob saved die being an idiot!" He shouted directly in my ear.

He held me like that, a few inches off the ground so that if I was turned towards him I would be staring him in the eye, until the fire responders came back out. Just as they exited an enourmas crash could be heard and the building collapsed. Two responders were carrying an old man between them, and the third was rushing ahead of them to get the stretcher ready. Kevins iron grip loosened and I broke free, running up to the responders as they loaded the man up.

"Is he going to be okay?" I asked desperately as they lowered him on. The old man was covered in soot and let out a rattling cough, and I realized with a start it was the man who had let us into the city.

"We don't know." A frantic female voice said from one of the suits. "Move out of the way!" The three of them pushed past me and sprinted towards the hospital.

The entire group of us sat still for several minutes in shock of what just happened. Even Kevin was staring blankly at the dying fire uncomprehensivly.

After many minutes, whispers began rising.

"Who would burn down the radio station?"

"Will he be okay?"

"Will people start leaving town again?"

"They better not, the Ncr's war has driven off enough people."

"They didn't even try to save the house…"  
"Who could have done this?"

The whispering faded away as people began moving farther from the house until only me and Kevin were left. He eventually turned away from the now dead house and stared at me with a grim expression.

"We both know who did this." Kevin began

"We don't." I replied

"Who else could it be?"

"Anybody else! It's not all about him."

"Let's find out then." He said and pointed behind me.

I turned around and there was Set, strutting towards us, tape on the bridge of his nose. When he got to us, he looked at the burnt remains of the building and feigned a gasp.

"Oh no!" He whispered in mock horror "What happened here?"

Kevin glared at him and said through clenched teeth."Get. Out. You've. Done. Enough."

Set gave him an increduloues look of dramatic suprise. "Me? Do such a thing? No, but if you ask me, that man got what was coming for him. Nobody should call me petty gang leader, that's disrespectful."

He heard that? "How did you know he said that? That was after we left you at the gate."

He turned to look at me. "I have ears everywhere. Like I said, I own this town. When the Ncr began fighting and people abandoned the town, I was able to drive my control deep under the surface. Now, people are beginning to see just how much control I have."

"Go away." Kevin growled "Before I break your nose again."

Set looked furious and touched his nose for a moment before relaxing and laughing lightly. "Don't worry." He assured us "You'll learn respect too."

Set began walking away but Kevin called out "You kill a meaningless Brahmin and think we'll respect you for it? Like we care that you murder a dumb animal, you can do nothing that matters and you know it!"

Set stopped in his tracks. Slowly, he turned and said.

"I can do everything that matters. This is only the beginning. I have assets you don't know about, supporters waiting for my signal. At a moments notice I could take this entire city by force, and they wouldn't even be able to radio for help."

He walked away and dissapeared behind a city block corner.

Kevin and I both sat in silence for a moment before speaking hurriedly at the same time.

"He's bluffing."

"We have to stop him from doing further damage."

I glared at him. "He can't do any further damage. He has no real power."

Kevin looked at me like I was an idiot. "No real power?" He asked "Explain this." He made a sweeping gesture towards the house.

"OK, he did do this, I can't argue against that, but he's bluffing about how much power he has. You don't like him and are trying to find an excuse to punish him." I argued

"It's better than letting him punish other people first." He countered

I bit my tongue. There was a real threat here. Why was I so against taking action?

"We need stronger evidence."

"Why? We know he did it. It's not like we're taking him up in court."

"Yes we are."

"He won't get punished that way."

"But he will be removed as a threat."

Kevin hesitated. I won. "Fine." He conceded. "We'll get some stronger evidence, but any fair-minded person would already be able to see that he's guilty."

"Then once we get more, they'll be able to see it clearer."

He fell silent for a few minutes, and then spoke. "Where should we start?"  
"Tommarow." I said firmly.

"Why?" he

"Because enough has happened today."

"What will we do then?" He asked, slightly confused.

"Have fun? Watch vids?" I said, confused "What else?"

"You're going to waste your time watching vids from the twenty first century, when somebody nearly died in a fire." He asked in disbelief.

"Yep, and you are too. You don't know life until you've watched six straight hours of the marvel franchise."

"I'm not a movie fan."

"You are now, let's go. I'm not letting you spend the rest of the day moping around and scowling at birds."


	7. The Mayor

I could see Him again. At the end of a dusty candlelit hallway, he stood with his back to me, facing a broken grandfather's clock. It would have been beautiful if not for the gash in its face and the burns on its body. Its hands were frozen in place, as well as the pendulum, caught at the apex of its swing.

He made no gesture to acknowledge my presence, he never does, and so I walked

Towards him, determined to make him look at me. As I walked, the candles on the wall flickered out behind me. By the time I reached him, none were left.

I could only see Him as a faint outline, unmoving, not breathing, completely still. Had the lights never been on, I would have mistaken him for a stone, unmoved by time.

Suddenly, the stone shifted. His head turned slightly to the side and he spoke in a cold voice that scraped against my mind like a knife.

"You ignore me even in death. Disregarded my plea made in last breath."

A pang of guilt stabbed at my heart and my chest tightened. No. It's not like that. I'm not, I would never

He turned around slowly to face me. "You will be consumed by flames." He murmured in that chilling voice.

Suddenly, the candles all flared to life, throwing His face into the light. Pale and waxy, his once handsome face was now gaunt and burned along the right side. His left was left unburned, but that eye was gone and replaced with a gaping hole, slowly trailing blood down his cheek.

The room began shaking and the candles grew brighter. "You will be consumed by flame!" he repeated, voice loud and angry "If you do not learn to be whole again!"

The room shook harder and His eyes began glowing. Brighter and brighter, they invaded my sight and blinded me completely. I closed my eyes as tight as possible and threw up my hands, but it was no use. Brighter, brighter, brighter….

Finally, it dimmed. I cracked my eyes open and squinted against the source of the light. I stretched out my hand and fumbled against it for a few moments until, finally, I found the string and tugged on it, shutting the blinds.

The room was again plunged into darkness. I sat up on the edge of my bed, heart beating hard. My hands were cold and clammy and my back was covered in sweat. The dreams were getting worse.

I pushed myself up and made my way to the small bathroom, stretching and groaning. I hit the light switch and stood in front of the small mirror, taking myself in. A pale face, dripping in sweat stared back at me. I tugged at my eyelids and saw how bloodshot my eyes had gotten, and when I lowered my hands I noticed how much they were shaking.

I took a fast cold shower and marveled at how good it felt after being on the road, living in dirt for the past week. I stepped out and grabbed the towel on the rack and went back into the small room.

The Holoplayer was still on from movies the night before. Couch cushions had been scattered around on the floor from when Kevin got excited about Iron Man discovering an alternate energy, and got so pumped up that the only way he could let it out was to shout loudly and throw inanimate objects. It took several minutes to calm him down.

I smiled at the memory of him, usually so cold and distant, worked into an absolute frenzy of excitement, shouting and throwing pillows across the room. He definitely got into movies for "Not being a movie fan."

I flicked the Holoplayer off on the way to my bag, and pulled out a long-sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans. I winced as the sleeves irritated my sun-burnt arms, but short sleeves would only make it worse. I considered putting on my leather armor, but I did not want to wear that around in the heat for no reason.

I strapped on my holster and put on my dog tag. I checked myself in the mirror a second time. A little more color had returned to my face. I washed it with some water, dried it, and walked out the door of the room. I took the stairs down, there was no elevator for a 2-story free motel, and found that Kevin had already beaten me down, and gotten breakfast. He was sitting in the meal room, at a four-person square table farthest away from the door, directly beside the window. He kept glancing out of it, scowling, and going back to eating his food, before looking out the window again.

I walked across the nearly empty room and sat in the seat opposite to him "Out of two dozen empty places, you choose here."

He looked away from the window for a moment to scowl at me "I needed to be able to see what he was doing."

"What who was doing?"

He ignored my question and instead pulled up a plate from the empty seat next to him "Here" He said, handing a plate of steak to me "Eat."

"I didn't know they served steak for free, wouldn't that be too expensive for an Oasis?" I said in surprise, taking the plate.

"It's from the Brahmin yesterday. The cook said it was still good, even if dry, so he made it up for us. Not like he had much else to do, not many people are visiting St. George these days." He said, looking around.

I took a glance around and was surprised to see how empty the room was. A few people were scattered at various tables, a woman was on a ladder, washing a tall window, but nobody else. Locals may not be allowed to take advantage of the free food for travelers, but even without the people who lived here this place should be packed with caravanners and wanderers.

Thinking back, I realized how empty the town seemed. One of the biggest establishments in the entire Communicated Area, and the streets were almost completely abandoned the other day. The only Brahmin in the pen belonged to Kevin and Jacob.

"Why is it so empty?" I asked.

Before Kevin could say anything, the window washer piped up.

"People don't feel safe under the Ncr in the Mojave anymore." She said "They think they'd be safer from Caesar farther west or south, where the Republic is more powerful."

Kevin turned to look at her and she blushed a little. She hid her face by looking at the window, but kept talking, although more nervously. "I mean, the Ncr came in with a swoop of lightning and took the dam, right? That was impressive, got them some brownie points with the population. But then most people realized how overextended they are, stretched tighter than fishnets on a Brahmin. People lost faith when they saw the Ncr unable to continue on and the Legion grows stronger by day. I'm Laura." She added as an afterthought.

"And this is causing people to leave town?" Kevin asked, and his voice sounded warm and full, full of intrigue. He smiled at her, and Laura blushed again.

"Yeah, I mean, people are either heading west for more protection, north to unhabituated area, or east, trying to sneak through Legion territory to BOS. There are some rumors of people trying to make it out to Canada, far out of Communicated Area, to see what they can find."

"And why don't they feel safe in this town? They're plenty far away from the Legion, even if the Ncr is weak. Surely there are other reasons?" Kevin questioned, leaning over the back of the chair. Despite being absolutely terrifying when he wanted to be, Kevin was definitely good looking. Something about tall and fit was attractive, I had no idea what though. My short and scrawny was much more pleasing to the eye.

Laura fiddled with her hair nervously and glanced around. She stepped down from her ladder and leaned over our table. "Things haven't exactly been safe around town recently." She admitted in a quiet voice. "There have been fires, a few beatings. Gang violence. Just yesterday somebody set fire to the radio tower, nearly killed the old man that worked there."

She looked around nervously at the few populated tables. One man was sitting alone, passed out over a bowl. Two women in suits were arguing, pointing at business papers and ignoring the food in front of them.

Apparently she thought that was safe, because Laura leaned forward more and whispered "There's even rumors that the Ncr aren't coming to support us. They left this town a long time ago to fortify against Caesar, and sent back funds to keep this an Oasis, but they haven't returned. When the trouble started, we radioed for help, but got no reply. Now our tower is out and the STE Satellite Transponder is damaged."

Kevin was about to reply, but I beat him to it. "You had a transponder?" I blurted out in disbelief. "I didn't know the Ncr distributed those!"

"They give them to Oasis's." She explained "In the event that something goes wrong with a radio tower. Ever since they got those satellites up though, they have been very picky about who gets to use them. The Republic is going to be mad when they find out that we broke ours, especially because we kept it in the same place as our tower, which it was supposed to be a backup to."

Kevin opened his mouth to speak but I got there first. "I could take a look at it. Depending on the damage done, I could make some repairs."

She shook her head. "No, we have our own techs looking at it. IF it can be fixed, they'll handle it. Thanks for the offer though."

"What I'm wondering, is if you have any idea who's behind all of this?" Kevin said loudly, before I could get another reply in.

Laura shrugged. "This was a peaceful town before this all started a few months ago. We have no idea who is behind all of this violence."

Kevin sat back in his chair in disgust. "Thank you for your time." He said coldly. "We're just leaving."

"Already?" She said, disappointment evident in her voice. "You know, you can come over anytime, I live over at-"

Kevin stood up abruptly and drew himself to his full length. His smile fell smoothly into a scowl. "Yes." He said. "I'm sure."

He walked out of the room.

Laura watched him leave sadly. "Is he always like this?" She asked

"You have no idea." I muttered. "So you don't know anything about who's doing it?"

"Not a clue." She sighed.

'Alright then. I'll see you later, I better go find my rude friend."

"Good luck." She called as I left. "If I hear anything, I'll let you know!"

I left and set out to find Kevin, which turned out to be an easier task than I thought, because I bumped directly into him as I entered the hallway. I sent us both stumbling

"You know." I scolded once I got my balance "You really set that girl up in th-"

He put a hand over my mouth. "Keep quiet." He warned, and then took me by the arm and guided me towards the front door, flattening himself against the window beside it. He gestured for me to look through and I peeked through the blinds and nearly gasped in surprise.

Set was sitting out on the front steps. He was wearing a faded gray suit and his long blonde hair had been pulled back into a ponytail.

"What is he doing here?" I hissed as I pulled the blinds closed.

Kevin's face was stone. "I don't know." He said. "I've been watching him from the table most of the morning. He's barely moved at all in the past hour."

"What do you think he wants?" I asked, peering through the blinds again. He was still sitting there, staring blankly to the other side of the street.

"Nothing good." Kevin said darkly. "Let's go see."

I tried to protest but Kevin had already opened the door and pulled me through.

Set looked up the second he heard the door open and smiled. "Ah, my friends! So good to see you!"

"Where did you get the impression we were friends?" Kevin asked coldly.

"I've been waiting here for you two." He said, apparently having not heard. "I was going to meet you last night, but you were busy. That's a nice piece of tech you got there Alex."

Hearing my name jarred me. "How did you know about that?" I asked.

Set winked cheerfully at me. "Eyes everywhere. Now that your movie night is over, come with me. I have something to show you."

He began walking down the street. I was about to turn around and head back inside, but Kevin stopped me.

"We need to see where he's going with this." He muttered in my ear.

"He's insane, we can't go with him anywhere." I whispered back.

"Come on." Kevin was not going to take no for an answer and he dragged me a few feet before I decided it was futile to not go.

"As you both know, that fire yesterday took out a radio tower." Set said from in front of us as he weaved his way in and out of streets.

"Now, that's obviously a problem. Not a big one, but a problem nonetheless. Without a tower, how would anybody be able to communicate? Do you have any ideas?" He asked. Kevin and I both remained silent. Set continued on. "But you see, they have a backup plan! They had a transponder for those satellites sent into space during the Revival. Save The Earth foundation made them before the war and stored them in bunkers along with oodles of other technological wonders, including your Holoplayer." He nodded at me. "So they gave this town a transponder so they could communicate via STE satellite in the event of radio failure."

"Why are you telling us any of this?" Kevin demanded. "We already know."

Set stopped and turned around, raising an eyebrow. "You do now? Then that means you know that the transponder was damaged beyond repair?" Kevin nodded tightly, face in a perpetual scowl. "What you don't know is that if this town went radio silent with that transponder, the Ncr would send troops in to check out the situation. If somebody were to take out communications, they wouldn't want that, now would they?" He asked, staring hard into my eyes.

It took me a few moments to realize he wanted me to reply. "No." I said quietly.

"That's right, they wouldn't! But if somebody were to… say… take the transponder and keep it broadcasting, replace it with a fake that gets broken, the Ncr would never butt in. And if they already had the transponder, they could theoretically override broadcasts for troop support sent over the radio tower with their own transmissions."

A bad feeling was beginning to take place in my gut. This guy was worse than I, or anyone else, thought.

Set adjusted his pony tail for a moment and straightened his suit. "With these transmissions he or she could say all is well, or no assistance needed, or that everything is fine we just need a few weapons. Maybe even a vehicle or two."

I looked over to Kevin. He was staring directly at Set, breathing hard with fury in his eyes. "Get. To. The. Point." He growled "We're done hearing about how almighty and powerful you are."

Set narrowed his eyes at Kevin. "I know you want to turn me in, because you have some ridiculous notion I'm behind this." He gave a high, fake laugh. "I've come to propose that you stop. You've humiliated me once already. The only other living man who has humiliated me is in the hospital with third degree burns, and that, even, won't be for long."

I shivered at his words. The only living man. Set was definitely insane.

"For the same to happen to you would be a tragedy. You're travelers and don't need to get too deep into local affairs, Alright? You're useless. So get your Brahmin, pack your bags, and go home." Set smiled "There will be no trouble."

"And what if we don't leave?" Kevin shot at him.

Set's smile became frozen on his face. "Then there will be some… negative action to persuade you."

Three men rounded the street corner. Stocky and gorilla-like, they were the opposite of Set's tall and lanky, but they radiated a menacing energy.

Set spread his hands and gestured towards them, smiling and saying. "These are my dear friends. We've been with each other through thick and thin. But, they're a little… eccentric. They've been in and out of jail, treated wrongly by the justice system. Baller here," He pointed at the shortest most muscular one. "Has been put in jail a full 7 times."

The short one, Baller, grunted, apparently pleased with himself. He cracked his knuckles and I inched a little behind Kevin, who was glaring at Set so intensely I half expected him to bore a hole in sets skull.

Set, meanwhile, continued "These men act impulsively sometimes and aren't always the brightest or fastest," The men stopped looking menacing for a moment and looked at each other, confused about whether they had been insulted or not. "In fact, if they get an urge to do something, they can hardly resist. I mean, Baller himself has trouble repressing his… love… for pyrotechnics."

Baller grunted again "Yeah" He said "Love spyro-techtikes."

Set made a face at him. "So to answer your question, Kevin is it? Kevin, to answer your question, if you don't leave, I can't stop my impulsive friends from getting upset at you. To stop them from doing so, I suggest that you be gone by tomorrow." Set finished, looking expectantly at Kevin.

Set and I both waited for Kevin's reaction. His expression was neutral, all anger had been driven out. I could see the gears turning in his head, working out the problem. Finally, after several minutes of tense waiting, he opened his mouth.

"Accepted." He said simply. "We'll be gone by tomorrow."

Set smiled victoriously while I sat there, stunned. What was he playing at? I had expected some aggravating response to announce how stupid Kevin thought Set was, or some cold denial. Not complete submission.

"Good." Set smiled "Now run along. I'm sure you friend Jacob is missing you back at the Oasis Hotel. I have business to attend."

Set straightened his suit and walked farther down the street. The three men were still leering at us, but when they realized Set had gone, they lumbered after him. Soon the entire group disappeared from view.

"What did you say that for?" I hissed.

"It was the only option." He said, still staring at the spot Set had just been "He outnumbered us. If I had denied it, I doubt he would have let us walk away."

"Fine." I muttered "Why is he taking so much effort to constantly speak with us? We've barely gone five feet without running into him."

Kevin rolled his eyes "Because we know it's him. He keeps a low profile around locals, but the guy at the gate when we got here, who's now in the hospital, told us he constantly harasses travelers. My guess is that they're usually gone within a day and that's his definition of fun, making people wait on him to get in the city. Make him feel more important. We're the ones who stayed, just before he took out the radio tower. We know it's him and that makes us dangerous to him."

"If we're so dangerous," I said "Why doesn't he just kill us?"

Kevin hesitated. "I don't know." He admitted. "He said that the old man at the gate humiliated him, that insult about being a street right, maybe because we were there it made us a part of it? Set craves power, and he hates being made look weak, so he might be waiting to take care of us to make sure we know how powerful he is."

"Wait," I said "I thought he was going to let us leave?"

Kevin once again rolled his eyes "He's certainly not going to let us leave. He let us leave that confrontation alive, but I have no doubt he'll have us taken care of before we book it out of town. Too much chance of us alerting Ncr."

A silence fell between us as we stood in the abandoned street. The reality of the situation was just sinking in. The chances of running and surviving were low.

And then another thought crossed my mind. "How come," I asked "He said Jacob was at the hotel?"

Kevin frowned. "I don't know. Jacob was out cold at the hospital last time I checked. He must have gotten his info wrong."

"Maybe he doesn't have as many eyes or ears as he says he does."

"Either way, he still has plenty. Come on, let's go."

"Go where?" I asked in confusion "to the hospital? The hotel?"

"No." He said "If Set doesn't know Jacob is at the hospital, we need to keep it that way. Going back to the hotel is pointless unless you want to pack your bags so you can be killed tomorrow. What we need to do is tell what we know to whoever is in charge so that if we die, Set can still be taken down. If we don't die, then great, but law enforcement still needs to know."

"Then we need to go to the hotel." I said

"Why?"

"Because Laura the window washer can tell us where to find who's in charge. And you need to apologize for being a tool."

I ended up being the only one to talk to her, and after telling me where to go, she asked where Kevin was.

"Busy. I'm sure he'll see you tomorrow." I assured her.

Her face fell in disappointment, but thanked me. I left the hotel and met Kevin outside.

"You know, you don't need to act like a dick to her. You kind of set her up a bit this morning." I scolded him.

"I'm not interested." He said indignantly

"You don't have to be interested to not be a jerk. Come on, it's this way."

I led him through the streets, trying my best to remember Laura's instructions, until finally we ended up at a 2-story office building.

We walked in and were greeted by a cleanliness that rivaled the hospitals. The waiting room to talk to the town leader was spotless, with couches in amazing condition lining the walls, and paintings hung every few feet above them. At the far end was a small, neat wooden desk with a male clerk sitting behind it. He smiled at us when we walked in.

"Hi!" He said brightly "Are you here for Mayor Maria?"

We said that yes, we were, and were ushered to sit down and wait.

Me and Kevin sat at opposite ends of one of the couches and waited. I was still a little on edge from talking with Set, and I felt that at any moment he would come in and announce that he had changed his mind, and since we were planning on turning him in, he had no reason not to kill us.

Kevin seemed to know what I was thinking because he muttered "We'll be fine, he's not ready to attack us publicly" to me. Regardless of that reassurance, I still felt nervous, and by the way Kevin was tapping the arm of the couch, he did too.

We waited for a good hour before the clerk's computer gave a beep.

"She'll see you now." He said, gesturing towards a door. "Up the stairs, first door to the right.

Right behind the door was a staircase, and I followed Kevin up them and to the Maria's office.

The office was empty besides the desk, which had a terminal and a few papers, and the woman behind it. She had dark skin, black hair, and a deep gray suit on. Her posture was impeccable, perfectly straight, and she radiated an air of power.

"What do you need?" She said flatly.

I looked to Kevin, but he appeared disoriented. Intimidated

Oh how the tables have turned. The hunter becomes the prey

I laughed silently to myself as he stumbled everything we knew about Set, and how he had been organizing the recent city crime. Every once in a while I piped up with something he missed, but for the most part I left the talking to him.

When he had finished telling her, we both sat in tense silence while she thought of what we had just told her.

"Okay." She began "What you're telling me is that a man that next to no one has heard about has brought together a gang, of which you have seen a total of 5 idiotic members, and has been terrorizing the town in organized crime. Not only that, but he has been using a stolen transponder to steal resources from the Ncr at worst, or at best keep the Ncr at bay. He's smart enough to do all that, and yet stupid enough to tell you both all of this, being liberal with information that he knows will put him in jeopardy."

If looks could kill, the cold stare she was giving both me and Kevin would have made it so we never had to worry about Set.

"Uh… yes." Kevin stuttered, for the first time since Jacob was beaten he fumbled over his words. Now that the story was said out loud it seemed like childish revenge against somebody who held us up at the gate.

She fell silent again for a few moments. Then she spoke.

"Gentlemen, as it so happens I already know this man, Set, is responsible for the events of the past few months. The gatekeeper, the man in the hospital from the fire, has been an invaluable source of information to me since the attacks started, although that information hasn't been enough to legally take him down. It seems that Set enjoys being able to brag, and he has to find some outlet for it. You two happened to be unlucky enough to piss him off enough to make you a new outlet. That means that you're going to be the source of all the information on Set that can be found, because he'll tell only you. It's a dangerous job, the last one to do it nearly died. If he finds a new outlet the same will happen to you."

Kevin and I exchanged uneasy looks. If Set was letting us go tomorrow, or pretending to before killing us, did that mean he found a new outlet? Or was he going to do something large and announce his intentions, therefore making the entire town his outlet?

"You will be given protection, of course. I'll have some local law enforcement look after you. But, be warned, if Set pulls a fast one, I doubt you'll be safe."

"And this protection is as long as we report to you?" I asked

"Of course." She stated, matter-of-fact. "That is the only way I can authorize using city resources, is if we benefit."

"May we request protection for somebody else Ma'am?" Kevin asked, oddly formal, with a neutral expression instead of a scowl.

"It depends." She replied with an equally neutral face.

"Room B-4 in the hospital. I would like a guard there inconspicuously."

"Consider it done." She assured "I will be adding a guard on the gatekeeper tomorrow as well, I'll get them both there at dawn."

"Thank you." Kevin said, bowing his head slightly.

"Alright gentlemen, are we clear?" She asked "I will provide you protection if you report to me with what Set tells you. You will be an outlet for him regardless of my help, but with my help it will be slightly safer. You can tell me in person, or give the information to one of the guards I will have stationed with you. Now, it's getting late, I want both of you to your hotel. Your guard will be there tomorrow."

Kevin and I left and walked out of the building. It seemed like the day had gone by so fast, the sun was already setting.

"You and I both know that having that protection won't help much if Set is going to kill us tomorrow." Kevin said quietly.

"There's the chance he won't kill us."

"Do you really believe that?"

"No."

"Maybe she'll keep the protection on Jacob once we're dead."

Silence fell between us as we walked. Our footsteps echoed through the empty streets like a funereal march.

Finally, I couldn't take it. "No." I said firmly. "We will not die. He may try, yes, but he will not manage. We're better than him, we can take him."

Kevin glanced side-long at me, but returned to staring blankly ahead. My brave declaration quickly faded away into the growing dark.

We turned a corner and the hotel came into view. We both glumly marched our way to it.

"Maybe-" I tried, but couldn't finish the thought. Maybe if we told the Mayor we thought we were going to die she would help? Chances are she would tell us that we were overreacting, and promise to post another guard. Maybe nothing will happen to us after all? Unlikely at best.

I was about to open the door when something caught my eye.

I looked to the other side of the street, over the one story flats, and saw a subtle glow hovering in the air. I squinted at it and it got a little brighter and bigger. A fire.

I pulled at Kevin's arm and pointed at it. He stared at it and his mouth opened a little bit in shock.

"What's the problem?" I asked, perplexed.

"Let's go, now!" He yelled and sprinted towards it.

"This isn't our problem Kevin!"

"Yes it is!" He hollered

"Why?" I called back

"BECAUSE THAT'S THE HOSPITAL LET'S GO!"

I looked up and realized that only one building stretched high enough to elevate a fire that high. Kevin was right. My heart sunk and I sprinted after him at full speed.


	8. Pyrotechnics

I sprinted as hard and fast as I could and finally, I turned a corner and the hospital came into view.

The entire top floor was engulfed in flames, but the fire hadn't stopped there. It had now spread to all but the bottom floor. Fire leapt out of the windows and licked the air, cracking and spitting at the crowd of onlookers that had gathered four stories below.

There were about fifty people gathered at the base of the hospital, talking in fast voices and waving their arms in agitation. Several people were looking uncertain, and kept making to move inside, but changing their mind last minute and running back to the crowd.

I ran across the street to the crowd and bent over, gasping for breath.

"Did… you see… another man… come by?" I panted, talking to the closest person, a middle-aged man with a large coat on.

"Yes." He said uneasily, pointing at the door. "He ran full speed at the door, didn't stop for anything. I tried to stop him, along with a few others, but he barged right past." He paused. "It's weird… the fire response teams should be here already."

I had a sinking feeling as to where the teams were, and I scanned the sky for signs of conformation. I saw another small orange glow in the distance that told me I was right.

He continued talking, but I wasn't listening anymore. I was sprinting again, as fast as I could manage towards the closed door. I ignored the shouts and cries as I slammed into the door as hard as I could, and, to my surprise, it gave way. I stumbled inside and nearly tripped, but I managed to stay on my feet and I rushed through the main room and to the stairs.

As I pounded up the stairs, I yelled as loud as I could "KEVIN! WHERE ARE YOU?"

I reached the top of the stairs and couldn't see any signs of fire, but was instantly hit by a wave of nausea as I was overwhelmed by smoke. I instantly started coughing and spluttering and my chest tightened. I remembered something about keeping low in a fire, so I crouched down to avoid the smoke but it didn't help.

"KEVIN!"

I heard no reply and I stood up again. . I began running from room to room, opening the doors and glancing in for a sign of Jacob or Kevin. My eyes were watering so badly from the smoke I could barely see, and I was having trouble breathing. Regardless, I plowed on, regretting never learning what room Jacob had been moved to after his first night as I opened and closed doors.

I finished all the doors on second and stumbled up to third. I was instantly hit by a wave of heat and was greeted by an even thicker blanket of smoke and fire lining the walls and doorframes.

"KEVIN!"I hollered, falling into a coughing fit from the effort. My head was swimming and I was having a hard time standing up, but I moved as quickly as possible down the hallway, shrinking away from each side of the wall in turn as the fires on each grew. Soon I was stuck walking in the very center, with intensifying heat on either side.

"KEVIN!"

This time I heard a muffled reply, from a door to my right. The frame was in flames and the door closed, but I kicked it open and ducked inside, stumbling and tripping.

Fire had crept into this room as well, but not nearly as intense as the hallway. I fell to the floor as another wave of dizziness hit me from the suddenly fresher air, and I coughed and retched there for a moment before a voice brought me to my senses.

"Help me!" Kevin yelled. I looked up and saw that he was tugging and pulling at some straps on the patients table, where I saw a body lying still. With a jolt of excitement, I saw it was Jacob, and I got to my feet quickly. My vision flickered and I stumbled, but I got to the table and began helping Kevin.

Jacob was looking terrible. He was skin and bones, thinner than I was. His cheeks were hollowed and when his patient's gown was pulled back in unstrapping him, I saw that his ribs were showing. I could barely comprehend how unhealthy he looked when just a week ago he was in the same top physical condition Kevin was.

I pulled a final restraining strap and Kevin picked him up and swung him over his shoulders as easily as with a child.

"Come on!" He coughed. His face was green and he looked in no better condition than I felt, but he staggered out to the burning hallway and I followed him.

The fire had gotten worse, but my head was pounding too much to notice. My vision was flickering and swimming so bad that I could barely see, and it was all I could do to follow Kevin. I tripped once, but I felt a hand grab me from underneath the arms and pull me back up.

"We're getting out of here, let's go." He growled, and we kept going.

The second floor had gotten much worse since I had come up. Fire had spread just as bad as on the third, and I could see in several rooms that flooring had collapsed so that the ground floor was visible. Kevin stumbled towards the staircase and tripped, turning his body so Jacob wasn't hurt.

I collapsed to my knees next to him. I tugged at his arm pathetically, but I couldn't make any progress. I just wasn't strong enough. The smoke was sapping at my strength, pulling me further and further down. My lungs had frozen and each time I tried to draw a breath my throat constricted, refusing to allow more smoke into my body. It would be so much easier to do this on the floor completely.

I fell fully to the ground and laid next to Kevin. His eyelids were open but his eyes had rolled into the back of his head. I couldn't see Jacob, he was on the other side of Kevin, but I couldn't possibly think he was in any better position. The heat got higher and warmed me to the bone. It would be nice to just stop here, and sleep with this nice, warm, blanket around me.

I looked up sleepily and saw that the stairway had gone. In its place a grandfather clock was standing at the end of the hall, surrounded by flames. He was standing in front of it, head following the pendulums swing, watching each second pass.

"You will be consumed by flames."

I pushed myself up drowsily and stumbled to my feet. Red lights were flashing in the edges of my vision and everything was tinted orange, a siren was screaming in the distance, but I couldn't pay attention to any of it. All I could care about was Kevin, and Jacob, on the ground, they needed me.

I summoned the last off my strength and yanked Kevin to his feet, black spots dancing in front of my eyes. I supported him heavily on my shoulder as I reached for Jacob. He was much easier to get, and I supported him on my other shoulder.

"Kevin…" I murmured "Kevin get up…" I tried to shake him awake, but his head just rolled to the side.

I looked up and the staircase had come back, but it was too far away. I turned my head and saw into the nearby room, with a hole in the floor. I made my way into it, ignoring the heat and smoke, dragging both Kevin and Jacob with me. I somehow made it through the door and approached the hole.

I let both men slide off my shoulders to the floor. I leaned over and grabbed Kevin, tugging him over to the hole. Fire ringed the edges, but with a 4 foot diameter, there was plenty of room to gently lower Kevin down. My muscles screamed in protest and I had no idea how I managed to do it, but I let him gently get to the ground as best I could. I grabbed Jacob as well and did the same, with considerably less stress.

Once Jacob touched down to the floor, I rolled over and groaned. The fire had completely engulfed the perimeter of this room and my vision was fading into black steadily. I pulled myself desperately to the hole, grabbing onto the edge and ignoring the burning that resulted, and tugged myself towards it. I fell forward and landed heavily on my side.

The fire hadn't made it down here yet, and as a result the air was majorly clean, although still smoky. I tried to take a deep breath but instantly started coughing. I settled instead for lying on the ground and taking short rapid breaths that had never tasted so sweet.

I tried to push myself up, but my strength had gone completely out. We were safe for now, alive for a little longer, It was time to leave. We had to go...soon. My eyelids felt heavy and began drooping. Perhaps just a second of rest.

No, a determined voice nagged in my head. You need to get out

But I'm so comfortable, a smaller portion wined.

Get up, let's go

No, leave me alone.

"Get up!" A voice shouted into my ear.

My eyes shot open and I saw Kevin leaning over me, shaking me hard.

"We have to go!" He said desperately, wild eyes darting around the room. "The building is collapsing and the fire is spreading down here!"

Just as he spoke, a huge crash sounded and a pile of debris crashed through the floor next to us.

Kevin helped pull me up, and then we both took a side of Jacob and began making our way out. It was a slow process, neither Kevin nor I could see clearly, and he almost certainly felt as dizzy as I was.

As I slowly walked across the main hall to the door, Jacob on my shoulder and Kevin at my side, I dully noticed how hard I was trembling. Sweat was pouring down my face. I would have blamed this on the fire, but it had started during the conversation with the mayor, which was unbelievably only an hour or so ago.

We were only a few feet away from the door now. Kevin was mumbling fast under his breath, swaying slightly. I found it impossible to put one foot in front of the other correctly.

Three feet. We picked up a little speed, shuffled a little faster.

We might just make it, I thought.

The hospital did not like being beaten that easily, because at that moment another pile of flaming debris crashed through the ceiling and landed on the floor in front of the door. A wave of heat passed over me and splinters from the pile shot out and sank into my arms and face, still partially on fire.

"What…. now…" I murmured to Kevin, fighting to stay on my feet.

He was still looking at the door in shock. I weakly hit against his chest and he snapped out of it. His tired eyes scanned the room quickly.

"Window." He said weakly, pointing. It was a window facing the front of the house, but far off to the side.

We made our way to the window. Things seemed to be fading away. I couldn't see the flames beginning to take place on the walls. I didn't notice as more piles of debris crashed through, several sending more flaming splinters at me. All the sirens and yelling from outside faded away, and the harsh crackle of the fire died out.

All I could see was the window.

Finally we got to it and Kevin struggled to slide it open. When he had managed, he slid himself out, falling to the ground directly after like a ragdoll. He stood back up and gestured for me to put Jacob through. I carefully passed him to Kevin, who laid him delicately against the ground. I then slid myself through, and people were beginning to notice the three people exiting the building. Muffled yells of excitement and concern began breaking through my mute barrier and I felt many hands suddenly grab me and take me away from the building fast. I could just barely see through half-closed eyes that the same was happening to both Kevin and Jacob.

I was laid out on the ground and something was pressed firmly against my mouth. I took my first breath and I nearly sighed with pleasure. So clean, and fresh, the oxygen rushed directly to my brain, filling me up with happiness. My vision was slowly fading away and the group of people standing over me started to black out.

I took another breath of oxygen and the feeling swept over me again like a wave of pleasure. I grinned stupidly and let my eyes droop and head fall to the side. Just a moment before I find Kevin. I need… just a moment. I… I should find Kevin…

I blacked out

When I came to again, there was another person standing over me with a yellow fire suit on. They were talking indistinctly, gesturing wildly. Every once in a while they would take my pulse or put their hand against my heart. I saw some movement in the corner of my eye and tried to turn my head, but only managed to tilt it slightly. Regardless, it was enough to see.

Kevin was being laid down beside me. Gasps were rising from the crowd and one scream pierced the air as one of the fire team members began pumping at his chest. The crowd felt silent and waited with bated breath, and I found my own ability to breathe leave me as we all stared intensely at the limp form lying on the ground.

The responder breathed into Kevin's mouth and went back one last time to kick start his heart. One pump. Two. Three.

On the third, Kevin jolted forward, choking and spluttering. His chest heaved as he took enormous breaths of oxygen. The crowd cheered and applauded and the responder leaned back, obviously relieved.

I would have watched for longer, but a firm hand pressed my chest back to the ground and I closed my eyes to rest.

Sometime later screams woke me.

I lifted my head weakly and saw the crowd running past me, talking and shouting in fear and excitement. A flashlight that had been dropped to the ground illuminated my immediate area, and I saw Kevin was to my left, also stirring, and Jacob had been laid down to my right at some point. I struggled to sit up and saw the hospital had fully collapsed, and was just a smoking pile of cinder. I shuddered to think if any other patients had been trapped.

I tried to peek past the rushing crowd to see what the problem was, but people were moving too fast and there was no gap to see through. A man, the same one I had been talking to outside of the building, suddenly broke away from the main group and came up to me.

"Come on, get up!" He yelled, putting his hands on my shoulders and shaking me. "The responders left for equipment and these guys showed up while they were gone, you got to come with us!" And was gone.

My head had cleared significantly since I had exited the building, but his shaking still jarred me far more than it should have. The street swam before my eyes as the group cleared out completely.

I could see completely now, and none of it was good. Patches of fire were burning on the street and shops had their windows broken, and a glow could be seen inside them. At the end of the street, about 100 feet away, I could see a group of 7 people, most of them holding a flaming object, illuminating their harsh faces. I recognized one of them as Baller, the man working with Set. He drew back his arm and lobbed his object, which I now recognized as a Molotov, directly into a nearby shop. It crashed through the window and I heard a scream pierce the air. Apparently one was not empty.

Only one figure was still in shadow. They were carrying no fire bomb, and they were right at the front of the pack, making their way determinedly towards them.

"Oh, well now look what we have here!" The figure called, and I recognized Set's voice. Go figure, I thought. Now we're definitely screwed.

"A little group of heroes? Go into the building, did you? Well, we'll just have to show you why you shouldn't mess with affairs that aren't your business. Baller, do it."

The stocky gorilla-like man stepped forward, grinning. He lit a fuse on another Molotov and prepared to throw it, taking his time and seemingly enjoying the horrified look on my face. I scooted backwards and tried to tug Kevin and Jacob with me, both of whom were stirring. Kevin groaned and Jacob lifted his head tiredly.

Just before Baller threw, Set lifted up his hand to stop him. He stepped forward into the light of the cocktail with a look of surprise on his face. He was still wearing his suit and his hair was still tied into a ponytail.

"You two! Baller, throw that away." Set ordered, staring at us. Baller looked disappointed and dejectedly tossed the Molotov off to the side, where it landed in a trash can and lit the contents on fire. Both men were thrown into darkness, and the only sign of light now was the flashlight still pointed at our group of three.

"You two just get into everything don't you? Kevin? Alex? Did you fancy trying to save that old gatekeeper?" Set asked in a condescending voice.

Gatekeeper? What was he talking about? And then I remembered; the mayor had told us to speak with the old man who attended the gate and had offended Set. With the prospect of dying the next day, neither I nor Kevin had intended on ever doing it.

"I must say, that you two were very predictable, going straight for the leader of the town. Neither of you took to heart that I was always watching. So, I moved up my plans a little. I wanted you to know that I would not allow that sort of behavior, so instead of finishing off the gatekeeper later, I did it now, so I got revenge and stopped you from talking." Set rambled, strolling leisurely towards us. Jacob was almost awake now, and Kevin had already awoken, but was lying absolutely still.

"So you saved him." Set stated. "I must say I'm impressed. He was on the top floor where we started the fire, and I have no idea how you did it, but no matter. We can finish the job now."

Set believing Jacob was the gatekeeper was a slight advantage, and it was an illusion that we could not afford to break. It was our only upper hand.

"Wait, you set this fire?" I called, trying to stall for time that I had no idea how to use.

Set stopped and, although his face was hidden, looked at me with presumed amazement. "Yes." He said after a pause. "Was it not obvious? I thought you were smart enough to realize that." A few members of his group laughed at our apparent stupidity, but I ignored them.

"Well, you were only after the gate keeper, right?" I asked

"Yes." Set said impatiently. I could see Kevin slowly reaching for the gun at his waist, but I made a small motion for him to stop. Not yet.

"Why did you set fire to the whole thing for one person?" I questioned.

"Why not?" He challenged "I had the power and the ability. The fact that it is now burned down without my mark being killed makes no difference to me, I can still kill him. The building and its inhabitants were expendable."

A wave of anger rose suddenly and made my ears ring. Innocent lives. Expendable? Jacob was not expendable. Any other patient was not expendable.

"You, too, have become expendable. I was offering you, both of you, something generous today. A free ticket out, with your little friend you have hidden away back home." Set said in an almost hurt tone. "And you threw it right back in my face by going to the mayor, just when I thought we had become friends."

Maybe he had actually intended for us to leave. Too late to wonder now. Even if he had, if he was insane enough to consider us his friends, he was insane enough to think a ticket out of the city was through death.

Set stepped forward further until he was in our flashlight's beam. He was close enough now to realize that the man lying on the ground was Jacob, and not the gatekeeper, but he was staring to intensely at me to come to that conclusion.

His group of followers were still hanging back at the same one hundred foot distance, but they were getting restless. They had all disposed of their flaming fire bombs, but each had a new unlit one and a cigarette lighter open, waiting to light them.

Set continued "I cannot have you disrespecting me by betraying me. So, I must take care of your little friend back at the motel. The fire team is having one hell of a night."

He casually reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a black pistol. "I'll just take care of this guy, then be on my way to your friend, who was it? Jacob? Then I'll go take care of Jacob." He turned to his group and yelled "Get ready to move onto the hotel boys, we got a little more to take care of tonight!" Which was greeted by a cheer.

As he turned around, time seemed to slow down. Set had his gun loaded, and stepped forward to get a closer shot on Jacob, whom he thought was the gatekeeper. In doing so, he got too close to Kevin, who lashed out one leg and kicked him in the kneecap.

In the distance, I saw flashes of light as guns went off. Two of Set's followers dropped to the ground instantly, and the other four panicked, rushing into an alley to take cover as they were hailed by bullets. Soon, a stalemate firefight broke out between Set's followers and another half a dozen people hidden in shadows.

Set dropped his gun with a cry and clutched his knee in pain, bending over. I pulled back my leg and thrashed out as hard as I could. I was still weak, but I managed to land a solid kick to his face that knocked him over.

Jacob had woken up to my side and was getting weakly to his feet, obviously disoriented. I scrambled up as fast as possible. Kevin didn't bother standing, and instead scrambled on his hands and knees to Set's gun.

Set kicked out at Kevin and caught him in the temple, hard. I stumbled towards him to do something, but Set shoved me backwards. He may have been a street rat, protected by much larger men he was manipulating, but he had no trouble taking on two half-asleep, un-coordinated, unarmed people.

Except I wasn't unarmed. I fumbled for my gun, strapped at my waist, as Set got up and kicked Kevin in the head again. Kevin collapsed. Set grabbed his gun and stood up again. He swore and wiped his bleeding nose and turned towards me, gun pointed at the ground. My gun was leveled squarely at his head.

"Don't move." I warned, and he froze. I aimed down the sights towards his face, but my hands were trembling so bad I could hardly hold the gun. A cold hand had gripped my chest and squeezed, tightening my breaths. I couldn't do it, I knew that.

He was standing there, staring at me. His figure was outlined by the distant fires still burning from the cocktails, and He had one eye fixed unblinking on me, the other socket covered in shadow. I couldn't do anything to Him, I knew that. I lowered my gun, mesmerized by the flames dancing behind him.

And was instantly shoved hard backwards. I lost my grip on my 9mm and it skidded along the street away. Set hovered over me, with his own gun pointed at my face.

"Never show an opponent mercy." He whispered "Strike hard and fast, make sure they never get up."

Set took careful aim, and I saw his finger close around the trigger-

Before Jacob slammed into him with all his might. They both rolled off to the side.

I sat there stunned and watched as Set recovered his wits and rolled over on top of Jacob, slamming the butt of his gun into Jacob's face, and standing up.

Jacob groaned and begin sitting up, hands waving randomly in the air. I tried to get to my feet, but I still wasn't breathing correctly from the smoke and the effort nearly made me black out.  
I watched helplessly as Set got to his feet and turned to Jacob, who was still lying on the ground, dazed.

Three cracks pierced the air, right after the other, and I could feel the color leaking out of my face. Out of my body. I could feel myself emptying as I watched Jacob jerk backwards and then remain still. I cried out, but the ringing in my ears was too loud to hear.

Both of us, Set and I, sat frozen in tense silence for a moment. I was shocked to the bone, I couldn't take my eyes off Jacob's body. His face. Bloody, slack, I even saw, as his head tilted towards me, a bullet had pierced his eye…

It couldn't just end like that. Not when we had worked so hard, no, he couldn't just…

My thoughts were broken by a howl. A scream, inhuman, so full of raw anguish, that it chilled me to the bone and set my hair on edge. Kevin was staring at the body with a pained expression on his face, a mixture of shock, grief, and rage. Set turned to face him, swinging his gun to point at Kevin, but Kevin had already moved. He savagely tackled Set to the ground, knocking the gun far out of his hand. I was still too shocked to move as Kevin let out his fury. Time after time he punched him, beating Set senselessly against the pavement long after he stopped moving. The firefight in the distance ended and several figures began making their way towards us.

All I could hear was a dull ringing in my ears. Kevin finally got off of Set's body and crawled to Jacob's. He grabbed him by the shoulders and shouted indistinctly, shaking him hard. Finally he pressed his face against his chest and broke down sobbing.

I crawled, shell-shocked over to him. His face was mutilated, destroyed by the bullets, and a puddle of blood was beginning to form around him. Kevin brought his head up, eyes red from crying, and seemed to see me for the first time. He gestured weakly to Jacob, as if I hadn't noticed, and then just sat there on his knees, staring at him.

Eventually the police officers arrived. They gently pulled me away from the body and spoke soft words, but I couldn't hear them. The image of Jacob was seared into my mind. I clutched my dog tag desperately.

Somehow they managed to get Kevin away as well, and they led us away from the scene. I managed to choke out what had happened. They led us through the narrow streets and into a small white building. Past the lobby, they brought us into separate small sterile rooms and the head officer, a kind-looking woman, gave both of us a set of spare clothes and told us we could shower before the mayor got there.

I dully followed the instructions, and Kevin did too. I felt too numb to be disobedient to them. As the hot water poured over my shoulders, washing away ash and grime, stinging my burned skin. As I watched blood and dirt swirl down the drain I began to feel the tears flow freely. I stood there for what felt like hours, just crying. Crying over the people. Crying over Jacob. Crying over Set. Crying over the death and crying over the pain that it brought. I could hardly notice the burns on my arms the pain was so intense.

I finished and dressed and walked into my little sterile room. It looked like a miniature version of my hotel room, with a one person bed and couch. I walked out to the main lobby of this (Hospital? Oddly clean hotel? I didn't know) and saw Kevin sitting on a bench lining the perfect white walls.

I sat next to him. We were both silent, there were no words to say, but I felt less numb sitting next to him. Having him be there to experience the shock with me lessened it somehow.

Eventually the lead police officer walked back in, this time with the Mayor. The Mayor was in a t-shirt and denim pants, but she looked no less official.

"What happened?" She asked, in a surprisingly soft voice. She sat down next to me and placed her hand on my leg. "What happened at the hospital?"

Kevin remained silent, so I explained. In a dead voice I told her about seeing the fire, and rescuing Jacob. I told her about escaping and being taken care of by the crowd, before they all fled before Set. She was a good listener, nodding every once in a while, paying close attention. When I got to the part where the officers engaged Set's gang in a firefight, she interrupted.

"I decided that I should send guards to the hospital that night instead of in the morning. I had debated on doing it before, but the risk did not seem apparent enough." She explained in a small voice. "If I had sent the forces earlier, early enough to engage Set as well as his gang, your friend wouldn't be dead. If I had done it before it had been burned down in the first place, he wouldn't be dead. This is my fault." She concluded quietly.

Kevin shook his head dejectedly and I did the same. Had I pulled the trigger, had I just taken out Set, this would all be over.

She stood up slowly. "You're staying here tonight. The doctors and nurses will look after your burns while you sleep. Tomorrow you can go retrieve your things from your old hotel. You will also need to decide what to do with the body of your friend, and once that's over, you may decide whether to leave or to stay. I'll just…. leave you alone. Good night." And then she was gone and we were alone again.

We must have been there for hours, or minutes, or years, sitting in silence. All I know is that eventually Kevin got up and went to his room, and I followed suit. We were greeted in our individual rooms with a nurse, offering us a pill.

"It will help you have a dreamless night." She explained kindly, offering the pill.

I took it out of her hand and immediately swallowed it. She guided me to a chair and sat me down before beginning to attend to my various burns. I could hardly feel the stings as she wiped at my many scratches and cuts with alchohal, all I could see was Set shooting Jacob, over and over again, on a loop.

I closed my eyes and tried to shut out the images, but they burned clearer against my eyelids. I saw Set standing triumphant over Jacob, then the shots, and the scream, and the beating. A movie reel being projected into my mind that I had no control over.

Eventually the pill worked and I fell asleep. But it did not give me a dreamless night, instead my dreams were plagued constantly by not only Him, but a new member, Jacob.


End file.
